


Rapport

by Kemrys



Category: Legacies (TV 2018), The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: And handon broke up sometime ago, But it's on the show too so..., Dark Josie, F/F, F/M, Hosie all the way!, Hosie!, I was pretty surprised, I've spent all week wondering where Josie went after 2x14 and this is the result, It might come off as pretty crack-ish, No Jasie, Sorry Not Sorry, There's underage drinking, about both vocabulary and tagging, back to tagging though, btw I didn't know hosie had any other meanings till I looked it up, make that 2 weeks actually, so here's a fanfic about it, which is not surprising 'cause I'm ignorant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 38
Words: 27,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23352928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kemrys/pseuds/Kemrys
Summary: After watching 2x16 I've realized that I'm not quite ready to let go of Dark Josie yet, so I decided to put off doing anything productive and write an AU where Hope went with Josie at the end of 2x14.Featuring:○ Josie achieving mitosis.○ Lizzie being done with Hosie (but lowkey shipping them).○ The Merge being done two times in just as many days.○ Hope singing.and○ A dash of drunk Josie.
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson & Josie Saltzman, Hope Mikaelson & Lizzie Saltzman, Hope Mikaelson/Josie Saltzman, Josie Saltzman & Lizzie Saltzman
Comments: 225
Kudos: 608





	1. The Beginning (Of the End)

From the moment they did it, Hope was sure that putting Josie in a cell wasn't the right move. Even if the siphoner really was full of dark magic... Feeding that dark magic with negative emotions was a terrible idea.

"Looks like the gang's all here." Josie murmured as she sat up from the uncomfortable looking cot, one of the very few things in the dark and dreary room. "Why am I locked up exactly?" 

Hope flinched at the tiny crack in her friend's voice, one that she was only able to hear due to her werewolf hearing.

"Well, you've been through a lot." Alaric sighed.

Hope fought the urge to kick him. In the face. Repeatedly. What the hell kind of answer was that anyway?

Lizzie's dismayed gaze at her father told her she wasn't alone in her feelings.

"How are you feeling?" He asked his daughter in a soft voice.

Hope clenched her fists. Why, why would you ask that when _you_ probably made her feel like a prisoner without even a decent explanation?

"Never better." Josie paused, thinking out her next words. "I think the therapy was really good for me." She lied with a small grin on her face.

Hope and Lizzie had a silent conversation on how to proceed. It probably looked ridiculous to anybody who noticed it, if anybody did.

"You're full of black magic," Lizzie said a small, slightly timid voice. Josie looked at her impassively. "I was too selfish to see it before, but I can feel it." Josie continued to stare at her twin without showing any emotions. "This isn't you Jo."

It was then Josie's eyes changed to a black, inky color that Hope came to associate with Josie's darker side, and the tribrid's heart skipped a beat.

Josie giggled silently. "It is now," She replied with a wide smile that just didn't seem right. Everybody froze in their spots. "So get used to it," Josie said in a slightly patronizing way, as if she wasn't dealing with her twin sister, but rather a dull child who defied her authority.

She snapped her fingers in an overly dramatic fashion and changed her appearance.

Hope wondered why didn't Jo just change it when the color of her eyes changed.

She also wondered why would she snap her fingers because she remembered that her best friend cried for maybe fifteen minutes straight after watching the Snap in Infinity War. But that was really irrelevant, so Hope forced her attention back to her friend.

"Cause this look is here to stay." Josette Saltzman declared.

"Josie..." Hope drew the brunette siphoner's attention to herself, intending to say something about everything being okay, and maybe putting Jo under a sleeping spell, but when Josie looked at her Hope was suddenly lost in the pain and anger in her eyes. And somehow the tribrid knew that she, Lizzie, and Alaric caused most, if not all of it. Her promises suddenly felt like ash on her tongue. "I'm sorry."

Josie tilted her head with an obnoxious smirk on her beautiful face. "Are you now, Hope?"

Hope closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on her words because suddenly, her mind was blank.

"I hurt you a lot with Landon, and other..." Hope opened her eyes and immediately regretted it. "...things."

"What are you doing Hope?" Dr. Saltzman glared at her. "We talked about this, do it now Hope."

"I'm not putting her to sleep!" Hope snapped right back at him.

"That was your big plan?" Josie scoffed, snapped her fingers again, and suddenly everyone except for Hope fell to the floor. "I'm a little underwhelmed."

Hope sped over to Lizzie, knelt, and checked her pulse. Thankfully, it was still there, beating rapidly against Hope's hand. She stared at Josie, in utter confusion. How did she even do that? Hope and her aunt Freya made sure that this one cell blocked anyone's magic, like Freya's favorite bar did back at New Orleans.

"Oh, don't look at me like that," Josie smirked. "What did you think was going to happen, telling me your plan like that?"

"They are just asleep, right?" Hope breathed in deeply.

"Oh yeah." Josie smiled, and oh, it was a shark's smile. "For now."

"Why am I awake?"

"I guess I was just curious as to why you didn't try to put me to sleep yet." Josie shrugged. "Or kill me, either one."

Hope looked a little sick at the thought. "I could never hurt you, Jo."

"Didn't you apologize a minute ago for doing just that?"

Hope felt like the air was knocked out of her as if she was punched in the gut.

"I meant that I wouldn't deliberately try to hurt you without a damn good reason, Josie."

"And this isn't a 'damn good reason'? " Josie sneered, slightly frustrated at the tribrid. She moved a couple of steps forward and walked right through the bars of the cell as if they weren't even there. She lightly kicked her father's shoulder. "C'mon we both know that you hurt other people for less. What's the deal, Hope?"

Hope looked down at her hands in order to not look at her friends, perhaps even her family, laying on the cold, gray floor.

"I never want to hurt you." Hope managed to choke out.

"And why is that?" Josie reached out, letting her palm rest on the tribrid's cheek. " _Why_ is that, Hope?"

Hope shrugged, still not looking at anybody in the room.

Josie hummed. "Alright then, let's go."

Hope's head snapped up. "Go?" She mouthed the word, looking disoriented. "Go where?"

"Does it matter?" Josie rolled her eyes. "Away from here."

And then she walked away, straight out the front door, because no prison could hold Josette Saltzman.

And Hope could only follow.


	2. Finding Shelter

And so they left.

Josie decided to head to Mystic Falls since she didn't want to be too far away from the Salvatore School due to her newly formed plans.

It was only when they came to the Welcome to Mystic Falls sign that Hope finally spoke.

"Why are we here?"

"Well, I'm not going to sleep at the school now that Lizzie's ten times more likely to kill me in my sleep." Josie scowled. "I suppose we could've crashed at your room, but I didn't want to deal with your annoying roommate."

Hope rolled her eyes. "And where do you want to stay in Mystic Falls?"

"I don't know, I'm probably going to act according to the villain stereotype," Josie smirked and Hope shivered.

"How so?"

"Why, I'll find an old lady to compel to invite us to her house."

Hope stared.

"We're not vampires Josie."

"So?" Josie smirked again. "I found a spell in one of Bio-mom's old grimoires, it mimics the effects of compulsion."

Hope almost stumbled.

"Or, you know, I can kill you, you can feed on some helpless senior citizen, or a bunny if you'd prefer, and do the compulsion the old fashioned way."

This time Hope did stumble.

"Or..." Hope drawled out, slightly unnerved by Josie's suggestions. "... We could just stay at the Mikaelson Mansion."

Josie raised an eyebrow, silently urging Hope to continue.

"You know that dad and his siblings stayed in town when he tried to kill pretty much everybody except your mom right?" Hope waited for Josie's nod before continuing. "Well, Mikaelsons don't rent or lease buildings, so he had made hybrids build him a mansion. It should still be in his name. Knowing him though, before he died, he probably left it to me."

"Well, lead the way then dear minion."

"Yeah, don't call me that."

"Would you prefer the term underling?"

"No."

"Acolyte?"

"That sounds like something the Necromancer would call his underlings."

"Stooge?"

Hope glared.

"Helper?"

"I don't mind helper." Hope sighed. "But really, call me by my name."

"Ruin all my fun, will you?"

"Sure will." Hope murmured before speeding up her pace.

A few minutes later they arrived at their destination.

"We're here." Hope stopped in front of an imposing ivory-colored building. The mansion seemed untouched by time, left exactly how it was less than two decades ago. It wouldn't be the worst place to stay in for a couple of days.


	3. The Grocery List

Hope settled in her father's former room, a lovely space with light blue walls, dark furniture, and two large windows.

Josie chose Rebekah's because some of the vampire's dresses were apparently 'wicked enough' and would suit Josie's needs.

They crashed as soon as they got to their new beds because they left the Salvatore school at around midnight and were dead on their feet.

Josie found Hope in the morning, sitting on the kitchen isle, with a piece of paper and a pen in her hands.

"Whatcha doing?" She asked, trying to startle Hope.

"Making a grocery list," Hope answered not looking up. "Even if the house is fully stocked with furniture and toiletries for some reason, nobody touched the fridge in years. Do you want anything?"

Josie glided over to Hope and gently pried the list out of her hands.

"Why do you have three types of frozen pizza and four types of sodas on here?" Josie stared judgingly at Hope.

"Because I am a teenager?"

"No." Josie sighed before crossing the aforementioned items out. "Even if your metabolism does wonders for your figure, you are not going to live off fast food when you're with me."

"Thanks?"

Josie started scribbling and continued to do so for the next couple of minutes. Hope looked over her shoulder.

"Why do you need five types of cheeses?"

"Why, you're going to mac and cheese of course."

" _I_ am?" Hope didn't even _know_ how to make mac and cheese from scratch.

Josie hummed in agreement.

"Fine, if I'm the cook give me the list."

"No junk food.

"Not too much junk food."

Josie handed over the piece of paper.

Hope started writing. It was Josie's turn to look over her shoulder.

"Cottage cheese?" Josie scoffed. "You do know that this one doesn't go into mac and cheese, right?"

"Oh, it's not for that." Hope smiled. "You are going to eat at least a bowl of cottage cheese and drink at least two cups of milk every day."

"Excuse me?"

"Look, your skin needs calcium." Hope smiled at Josie. "It's going to be good for you."

When the girls were finally done their list looked something like this:

  * ~~Cheese pizza~~
  * ~~Pepperoni pizza~~
  * ~~Vegetarian pizza~~
  * Bread or bagels
  * Tea and/or hot chocolate
  * Steak
  * Potatoes
  * Almonds (chocolate covered?)
  * ~~_Sprite_~~
  * ~~_Coke_~~
  * _~~Doctor Pepper~~_ ~~~~
  * _~~Pepsi~~_
  * _Eggs_
  * _Cheddar_
  * _Mozzarella_
  * _Ricotta_
  * _Brie_
  * _Swiss_
  * _Mushrooms_
  * Milk
  * Cottage cheese
  * Sour cream?
  * _**1** _bag of potato chips
  * _Slim jims_
  * Bacon _(not too fat looking)_
  * Sunflower seeds



**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this might be heading into crack territory. I don't think that I dislike the idea. Thoughts on that?
> 
> Edit: Okay rereading what I wrote earlier... This is sort of cringe-worthy. Sorry. I think I had writer's block back then.


	4. Shopping

Hope wandered around town for a bit before actually going shopping. Mystic Falls really was a beautiful place if you turned a blind eye to all the supernatural crap.

By the time she finally found one of the three small grocery stores in town (not including gas stations) it was already noon.

"Hope, is that you?" She heard a familiar voice ask.

Hope span around with a small smile.

"Sheriff Machado!" Hope scratched the back of her head. "It's been a while."

"Yeah." The police office sighed. "Call me Deputy Sheriff Mac now though, Sheriff Donovan is back in town."

Hope winced.

The Mikaelsons had a very complicated relationship with whom they called "the only damn human in Mystic Falls".

"Where have you been?" The older woman asked. "Ethan and Maya miss you."

_Oh, I've just been hanging out with the girl who broke your son's arm and possibly denied him the scholarships he fought so hard for._

"I've been around." Hope's voice was a little higher than usual. "I miss them too, could you tell them to text me?"

"Sure." Deputy Sheriff Mac nodded. "You might want head on in now if you're here for snacks. They've started unpacking the new load of food. You don't want to be here when the locals realize that. They're surprisingly ferocious about food. I still don't remember what happened when I tried to shop for Thanksgiving."

_I'm a practically invincible tribrid, I'm sure I'll be fine._

"Okay then, bye!"

_That was a weird conversation. Then again, everybody in this town is weird._

Unfortunately, it seemed like Mrs. Machado was right. The store was overrun by people. Hope didn't let it bother her. The people didn't affect her abilities to find things. Most things.

After looking over the entire meat section, Hope was a bit frustrated when she couldn't find one of the few things like looked forward to cooking.

"Sir, do you know where I can find a good steak?" She asked the man who was next to her, looking at...chainsaws? What were those even doing in a grocery store?

The blond man turned to look at her. He frowned. "Here." He reached into his vest and pulled out a very sharp looking stick. "Did Alaric send you? Do I need to help you kill somebody?"

"What the hell man? Why would you ask that under the cameras?" Hope stumbled back. "I meant a meat steak, not a wooden stake."

"Oh." He tucked away the stake back into his vest. "I'm the sheriff, I can just ask for the footage, and then delete it."

"Whatever." Hope rubbed her forehead. "So, do you know where I can find a good steak?"

"Well there's Sasha, she's shelving meat now, so maybe look for other things you need before coming back to the meat section." The sheriff suggested.

"Thanks." Hope grinned awkwardly before practically running away to look for her potato chips.

_I was right. Everybody in this town is weird._


	5. The Great Dorkness

After Hope finally got home and unloaded the groceries into the giant fridge and the empty cupboards, she decided to explore the house.

If she was to stay there, she must know her territory, her wolf declared.

Besides, Josie was hiding out in her room, and Hope's phone was charging, so there wasn't much to do.

Hope started with the basement and made her way up.

There were many intriguing things in the house. Hope found a torture chamber in the basement. There was also a room for Marcel, even though at the time when Klaus built the mansion, he thought his adoptive son was dead. There were a couple of rooms which were clearly lived in (more than a decade ago), but there were no signs of who lived there. There was an ancient telescope in Elijah's old room and a suitcase filled with hundred dollar bills under one of the tables in the ballroom.

And the attic. Hope knew that you would usually find a lot of relics of the past in somebody's attic, but the Mikaelsons' attic was almost empty.

There were only three boxes and a purple acoustic guitar.

When Hope picked the guitar up, she noticed two letters carved in it.

**_K.M._ **

Everybody said that her uncle Kol had been obsessed with music when he awoke to the modern world during the doppelganger fiasco. Perhaps it was his. Or maybe...

Hope's thought process was interrupted when she heard a frustrated yell resonate around the house.

She carefully put the guitar back and found herself jogging toward Josie's room.

"Everything alright?" She asked Josie through the door.

"Fine," The door magically swung open, and Hope took it as a sign to enter the room.

"You yelled?"

Josie laying on the bed with her laptop on her legs. She looked up at Hope, and her scowl softened.

"Just frustrated at the plot."

"Plot?"

"This animated series Josie's been watching before I emerged." Josie pouted, and Hope almost melted on the spot. "Now that I had free time, I felt obligated to catch up... And...And, this is what I get!" Josie gestured hopelessly at the screen.

"Want to explain it to me?" Hope sat down tentatively next to Josie.

"Current plot or overall?"

"Current, I guess." Hope looked at the screen curiously.

"So there's this girl, who's a student in a French high school, who's also a local superhero." Hope nodded and leaned back against the headboard. "And then this lying, sausage haired frump comes along and basically turns everyone against her. They even expelled her from the school because of this bully."

"Okay." Hope smiled. "Mind if I?" She made a gesture with her hands.

"Go ahead." Josie nodded.

Hope reached out and started to gently massage Josie's back. The siphoner was way too tense over this.

"So, anyway this is so annoying! Like the superhero's crush is like 'be a doormat, she's gonna lie herself into a corner' and this is not okay! This show normalizes bullying and harassment and so many other negative things!"

Hope hummed in agreement, smiled, and applied more pressure.

"Don't watch it then." She suggested after Josie's back made a loud crack and the siphoner sighed in satisfaction.

Josie pouted some more. "I can't do that."

Hope fought the urge to laugh.

_This is the great dark power everyone is so afraid of? More like the great dork power._

"What are you smiling at?" Josie scowled. "Oh, go cook lunch or something."

Hope smirked and left the room.


	6. Lunch

"What are you doing?" Hope asked, not sure if she wanted the answer to the question. Josie didn't move in the last couple of minutes.

"I'm plotting." Josie declared from across the table.

She was sitting at the dining room table with her eyes closed, and her full plate in front of her.

"Well, do that later. Your mac and cheese is getting cold." 

Josie didn't respond.

"Eat your vegetables, Josie."

"You didn't buy any vegetables you dope."

"Sure I did. Potatoes are vegetables."

"Well, you didn't cook any potatoes, Hope." Josie practically hissed out.

"You ordered mac and cheese!" Hope scowled.

She suddenly froze. "You know what, fine." She got up, walked to the cupboard, and took out her bag of BBQ chips. Then she ripped it open and dropped it on the table in front of Josie. "There, all done. You wanted potatoes, you got them. Now eat!"

"I never said I wanted potatoes."

"What?"

"I just said that you didn't cook the potatoes because there aren't any vegetables on my plate to eat, and you wanted me to do that."

_I swear, if this is what having a child is like, then I'm sorry for all of what mom and Mrs. Salvatore-Forbes went through._

"Christ," Hope grabbed the potato chips and sat back in her seat. "Do what you want Josie."

She reached into the bag.

"Don't tell me that's your lunch, Hope."

"So what if it is?" Hope closed her eyes.

_Yelling wouldn't help anybody. Yelling wouldn't help anybody. Yelling wouldn't help anybody._

"Eating junk food as meals isn't healthy,"

"Not eating isn't healthy either,"

Josie scratched the back of her head. "I'll eat if you eat half of my mac and cheese. It really is too much for one person." 

Josie's plate was kind of big. And the mac and cheese sort of was stacked up like a small mountain.

"Fine."

"Fine."

They ate quietly after Hope sat down next to Josie.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you," Hope said after a couple of minutes of terse silence. "It's my fault that there's a lot on your plate."

"Apology accepted." Josie nodded. "Wait, we're not talking about lunch anymore, are we?"

"If I hadn't left Clarke behind in Malivore, he wouldn't have shown up at the Salvatore school Jo," Hope tried to explain.

"Please don't tell me you're apologizing for escaping from Malivore." Josie rolled her eyes, stabbing the spoon she held in her hand into her food.

"If I hadn't left him there alone, we both would've stayed in there, and he couldn't have tricked you." Hope didn't listen.

"So, maybe I wouldn't have used black magic." Josie scowled, acknowledging Hope's point. "But then dad, Lizzie, and I would all be dead. Jade and Wendy too."

Hope raised an eyebrow.

"I wouldn't have had the sand clock to use to help us escape in time, and Alyssa would've destroyed the Ascendant without you there to stop her."

"I..."

"You don't think about all of the good things that you've done, Hope." Josie gave Hope a sad smile. "That's your problem."

"You could've used Malivore to escape from the prison world, like Kai!" 

"And then we would be forgotten, with no place in this world, as you have been."

"You're right, I wouldn't wish that for anybody." Hope's closed her eyes. "But you would've been able to use the memory spell."

"Guess what Hope?" Josie rolled her eyes again. "That spell is dark magic. So, if I used it, we would be this exact same situation, only without you."

"I...There's...Good night Josie." Hope muttered before darting out of the dining room and into her own.

"It's not even evening yet," Josie muttered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I don't remember if the memory spell was actually dark magic. Do you?  
> Oh well, I guess it is in my AU anyway.


	7. Morality or Immortality?

"What?" Hope asked when she noticed Josie standing in the doorway of her room.

While the youngest Mikaelson closed her door yesterday, she must've forgotten to do the same after brushing her teeth and showering this morning.

"Something you said yesterday..." Josie slowly came into the room and leaned against the wall. "...stuck with me."

"Great," Hope exhaled. 

"Well, not any of your points, obviously," Josie smirked, seeing how hopeful Hope looked for a moment or two.

"Obviously," Hope rolled her eyes, slightly exasperated, "Care to share?"

"You said I could escape the prison world like my uncle Kai did," Josie started. "And normally I wouldn't want to be compared to that whack job in any way, shape or form, but I started thinking yesterday."

"Okay?"

"Kai had a single advantage over me in the prison world," Josie sighed. "Well, not counting his mad genius intellect. Emphasis on mad."

"Yes?"

"Vampire powers."

Hope felt herself grow cold. Due to her werewolf heritage, that was pretty rare.

"No," She was bombarded with images of the first boy she turned, Henry. She remembered bricking up the wall, singing to the boy who didn't know what he was getting into. What she was getting him into. She remembered gasping for breath as she realized that it was _his_ dead body hanging from the roof of one of the buildings in New Orleans.

"Yes, Hope," Josie pushed herself off the wall, hesitantly walked a couple of steps, and sat next to the tribrid on the bed. "I want to become a heretic."

"No," Hope repeated. "You don't know what you're thinking about getting into."

"I know that I don't want to die," Josie countered. "And there are plenty of people in the world who, like my dearest uncle, could simply snap my neck before I'm even aware of what's happening."

"Your parents, your sister, and your friends wouldn't let that happen, Jo," Hope replied quietly.

"I know _you_ wouldn't," Josie admitted. "But you're not always going to be by my side, and all some of my friends need is a little push."

"That's not true," Hope whispered.

"What would Lizzie do if I tried to kill her?" Josie gave Hope an unwelcome theoretical situation.

"Try to get the old you back," Hope murmured with a small smile. "And that's not a _little_ push Jo."

"A little push, huh?" Josie sighed. "Well then, what would happen if I tried to hurt Kaleb's sister as Alyssa did?"

Hope stayed quiet for a moment.

"I'm not letting you kill yourself for a small power boost, Josie."

"Well, it's not really small," Josie stopped teasing when she noticed Hope's stern glare. "And I don't want to kill myself either, Hope! You know my goals!"

"Not sure if I do."

"I need to make sure that Jo- I survive the Merge." 

"That's years from now."

"That's not the point, Hope," Josie raised her voice, feeling slightly exasperated. "My point that I want Josette Saltzman to survive. Live. Have a long life. Flourish. Prosper. Thr-"

"I get it!" Hope's irises melted into a golden color for a split second. "So?"

"So, killing myself so that I could live?" Josie rolled her eyes. "Been there, tried that."

Hope fought the urge to snort.

_How ridiculous are our lives?_

"Didn't work, so I'm not doing it a second time. I'm anything if not pragmatic," Josie lifted the tribrid's chin so that Hope had to look her in the eyes. "I don't want to die, Hope. All I want is an insurance policy."

"Henry," Hope whispered.

Josie thought back on the boy that went missing from the Salvatore School years ago. There were rumors of where'd he gone, but never anything concrete. Judging by the haunted look in Hope's glossy blue eyes, it wasn't a peaceful death. She sighed before gently putting her hand on Hope's cheek.

"I've had your blood in my system before, Hope," Josie reminded her. "And the only thing it did was save me."

"You didn't die because it didn't turn you," Hope rasped out. She realized that she was barely making sense, but there was nothing to do about it now.

"I never got close to dying because of your blood's healing properties."

"Liar," Hope might've already been at the Triad base by the time Alaric has finally gotten around to giving her blood to Josie, but she remembered how pale the brunette twin has been after getting shot.

_Almost as pale as she is now._

"You know what I mean," Josie rolled her eyes with a small smile. "Your blood saved me back then Hope. It might do so again."

Hope knew at that moment that she lost the argument.

"Think about it," Josie caressed her cheek for a second before springing up and waltzing out of the room.

Hope let herself fall back on her bed.


	8. The Decision

Hope spent a couple of hours in the greenhouse after that conversation.

She found a journal in one of the rooms in the mansion, belonging to a Maddox. There was no last name on the cover or the inside of the leather book. Or perhaps Maddox _was_ the surname of the witch that served her father. The journal was practically overflowing with recipes for potions and a few rare spells. She tried to brew a few potions to clear her mind with the ingredients she found in the greenhouse but didn't have much success.

The greenhouse was somehow thriving without gardeners or even water this last decade and a half. It was fascinating to Hope to see a pretty flower and realize that this beautiful little thing could cause paralysis for an hour or two if used right, but only for supernatural beings and would not affect humans. Or perhaps to see a vine and intuitionally know that it's stronger than it looks and couldn't be destroyed without a certain spell, created specifically for that.

The flora wasn't really what Hope was interested in, though.

She thought about her terrible past, confusing present, and questionable future.

She thought about calling her aunt Freya for help to sort out the mess that she had gotten everyone into.

She thought about calling Penelope. Perhaps the witch could get through to the Josie that just wanted to protect her sister. Or perhaps she would be glad that Josie was looking out for herself now.

She thought about just casting that sleeping spell on Josie now and dragging her back to the school. That particular thought process died out rather quickly.

She thought about how simple her life would be if she was born a non-supernatural being. She instantly hated the thought.

But most of all, Hope thought of Josie.

She thought of the sweet seven-year-old who tried to be her friend even when she was given the cold shoulder. She thought about a teenager who had an innocent crush on her. Hope thought about the girl Josie became - her very best friend, who felt like she was even more than that at certain moments.

She thought about Josie and came to the conclusion that she guessed she would come to hours ago.

She couldn't abandon Josie now.

Not after Josie's biological mother left her in the most traumatizing way possible.

Not after her other mother missed most of her life, even if it was for a good reason.

Not after Alaric dedicated so much of his time to Hope, and so little to his wonderful daughter.

Not after Penelope left to help Caroline and broke the brunette siphoner's heart.

Not after Hope threw herself into the black pit to save them all and left her for half a year.

Not after Landon left them both to protect them.

No, Hope would not leave Josie. Whether Josie realized it or not, she needed somebody's support. And if Hope was honest with herself, she needed Josie too.

"Did you decide yet?" Josie's voice startled Hope. "About the blood, I mean?"

_Yes, before you even left my room. But be a dear, leave me to my brooding now, will you?_

"Yeah," Hope turned around to see Josie lounging in one of the plastic chairs that were all around the room. "You're not going to like it."

"What?" Josie asked quietly. Her tone could be considered threatening if you didn't know her well enough. Hope was thankful that she did.

"I think your idea is a good one, don't get me wrong," Hope hurried to explain. "But you probably shouldn't use my blood."

"Why not?" Josie leaned back on the chair with a frown.

"Whenever my father turned people, they were usually sired to him. Granted, there were a few exceptions, but those were rare. And I am my father's daughter," Hope rubbed the back of her head nervously.

"Are you trying to say that I might be sired to you if your blood turns me?" Josie raised her eyebrow.

That probably wasn't meant to be as distracting as it was to Hope.

"Everybody says that I'm more powerful than my father," Hope shrugged, honestly a little uncomfortable at the thought of Josie being bonded to her in that way. "Do you really want to take that chance?"

Josie stared at her for a second. "No, I suppose not."

"If you take some blood from another vampire, your plan would still work," Hope smiled hesitantly.

"Alright!" Josie jumped up, looking slightly manic. "Then, tomorrow, we will head back to school."


	9. Back to School

Hope and Josie caught the end of Dr. Saltzman's slightly dramatic speech as they prepared to enter the room.

"That said, I just want to reiterate, under no circumstance should any of you approach her," He spoke rigidly. "While she is our family and friend, she is under the influence of black magic and... not herself."

"How can you be under the influence of not yourself?" Josie rolled her eyes.

"Whatever he has the doctorate in, it's probably not English." The corners of Hope's lips curled up.

Josie snorted.

"Your safety, and Josie's," Dr. Saltzman continued, "is my top priority. I promise you I will get through to her and bring back the Josie we know and love safely."

Josie scoffed.

"But first, we just have to find her." The man finally finished.

Josie grinned wickedly before banging the doors open and striding into the room.

"I'm right here, dad," Josie announced before gliding down the stairs without actually touching them. Hope decided to just sit at the top of the stairs to not attract too much attention to herself. 

"Well, don't look so shocked. Did you really think that I would miss my birthday?"

With everything going on, Hope forgot that today was the twins' birthday. Her stomach churned with guilt, and her mind went into overdrive trying to come up with perfect gifts for her friends.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Josie touched Lizzie's cheek as everyone stared at her nervously. "Our birthday."

Josie took a step forward, and Hope could've sworn that Dr. Saltzman took a tiny step back.

"So..." The brunette siphoner stared at her father. "What did I miss?"

With that, Hope got up, quietly slipped out of the room, and headed for her own (and Alyssa's) dorm.

* * *

After finding what she was looking for, Hope returned to Josie's side.

"It this the compulsion spell you told me about?" Hope asked, glancing at the students marching behind them.

"No." Josie pouted. "That one doesn't work on supernaturals. Well, sometimes it does, but only when the individual under control doesn't really mind it." 

_Then what in the world is this?_

"This is just a small suggestion spell," Josie explained as she noticed Hope's confounded expression.

Hope nodded and quietly walked over to Kaleb, giving MG a chance to talk privately with the siphoner.

Hope tuned out Kaleb after a couple of seconds of him chastising her for ditching the Super Squad to hang out with the Dark Lord.

Suddenly Kaleb wasn't next to her anymore, and he was pulling a limp MG out of Josie's arms after the brunette witch siphoned him?

Hope winced before jogging over.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Kaleb looked a little afraid of Josie. Hope didn't blame him.

"Oh, wait your turn, Kaleb," Josie smiled creepily. "Plenty of hugs to go around."

She left, and Hope followed her to an empty classroom down the hall.

"What was that all about?" She asked after a few moments of silence.

Josie siphoned from the wall before incanting a familiar spell. The illusion fell away from her hand.

"Is that?" Hope stared at the syringe in Josie's hand unbelievingly.

"I don't do anything without a reason Hope," Josie smirked. "And now I have a vampire's blood."

"If you start laughing maniacally, I swear."

"Don't be silly Hope, I would never be that tacky."


	10. The Gifts

After overhearing Dr. Saltzman's and Kaleb's conversation in the headmaster's office _(seriously, how come nobody cared that two-thirds of the school could've heard this one and many other important conversations?)_ she locked them both in the box.

And then hid their bodies in different cells.

Under several invisibility spells.

Just in case.

For their own safety.

And not because she was feeling overprotective of Josie.

After that, she headed to the gym, where she last saw Josie and her minions.

"Okay, that settles it," Lizzie sighed as she plopped down in a seat next to Hope. "My sister is definitely a monster."

Hope fought the urge to growl at her blonde friend...

…Because she didn't have time for a wolf run this week.

Not because of Lizzie's opinions.

"Who else would decorate for our birthday party with black?"

_I would. Maybe._

"Shouldn't you be in like witness protection with MG?" Hope snarked.

"If she wants to kill both me and MG, we probably shouldn't be in the same place," Lizzie started. "Besides, the safest place for me is by your side when MG wants to do research. You know how engrossed he gets." Lizzie smiled softly.

Hope nodded.

"Okay, so what are you planning?" Lizzie fully turned to Hope.

"Nothing!" Hope exclaimed, happy that her voice wasn't too high.

"Then why did your hands just jerk to your pockets?" Josie asked from behind them. Both Hope and Lizzie jumped in surprise.

Josie smirked and stared at Hope beseechingly.

Hope reluctantly pulled two relatively small items from her jeans' pockets.

"This is for you," She handed a what looked like a harmless golden necklace to Lizzie. "Since I didn't give you a present last year, I figured I could give you a similar gift to the one Josie got. Only this one does the opposite."

"The opposite?" Lizzie stared transfixed at the small sapphire attached to the chain.

"If you need it to, it makes the world seem quieter to you," Hope explained with a small smile.

"I love it," Lizzie grinned before putting it on.

Hope turned to Josie, who has been silent this whole time.

"And this is for you," She handed her a silver watch. "To match the necklace. It has a few healing enchantments on it. If you get a minor wound, it'll heal you with no problem."

"That won't happen," Josie assured Hope. "But, I appreciate the thought." She smiled as she clasped the watch around her wrist.

They sat in silence for a moment.

"So..." Lizzie looked around. "Why black?"

"I have my reasons. Well, reason, singular," Josie smirked again. "But since I already ruined Hope's surprise, I might as well ruin my own."

She snapped her fingers, and one of the rolled-up posters on the wall revealed its message.

**_HAPPY MERGE DAY_ **

Lizzie's jaw dropped down.

And so did Hope's heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Added in the "I would. Maybe." line because I saw this quote somewhere, "Psychology says people who love black color have the most colorful minds." Whoever said that was onto something.


	11. The Spell

"Merging isn't even possible," Lizzie looked like she was about to start hyperventilating. "We're not twenty-two."

Personally, Hope always thought that twenty two was a weird age requirement. Like where did that part even come from? What's so special about the number 22?

"Yeah, see, turns out that's just a guideline," Josie shrugged sinisterly. "Kind of like driving a car or smoking cigarettes. Nobody wants you to do it before you're old enough, but you can."

"And when'd you find that out?" Hope asked, not a little bit confused. "Was there a pamphlet on Merging or something at the mansion?"

Josie smirked but didn't answer the question.

"So, I'll see you both tonight?" Josie prattled on, unfazed by her twin's shocked stare. "Finger foods around 7:30ish, and then the Merge at 8:00."

Hope was a little impressed by Josie's ability to downplay the importance of everything going on around her or caused by her. Killing your own twin? Sure, no problem. Merging? About as important as dessert. At least that's what it looked like.

It was as much unnerving as it was impressive though.

"Okay, later," Lizzie grabbed Hope's hand and forcibly dragged her away before Josie even really finished speaking.

One minute they were at the gym, the next they were in the twins' room, with Hope standing awkwardly by the door and Lizzie throwing things backward out of her wardrobe.

"Found it," The blonde held up an old tome triumphantly.

Hope raised an eyebrow.

"You're going to fight Jo today," Lizzie sat down on her bed, with the book on her lap, and started to quickly go through it page by page.

"Pretty sure that's not how the Merge works," Hope rolled her eyes. "Wait, are you looking for a spell to make it work like that?"

"Don't be daft Mikaelson," Lizzie looked like Hope's question offended her. "If such a spell existed, my parents would know about it. They'd stop worrying about the Merge, pick a rando off the street and let me or Josie siphon them into oblivion."

"They wouldn't," Hope protested. "Both of them are too noble for that."

"Well, maybe not a rando," Lizzie shrugged. "But there are lots of undesirables out there, you know? If dad's capable of putting kids in prison worlds, he's probably capable of turning a blind eye on one big bad thing that we might have to do in order to survive."

And wasn't that a scary thought?

"Aha, found it," Lizzie put the book on the bed and stood up. "So, as I said, you're going to fight Josie."

"No, I'm not," Hope snorted.

"Yes, you are," Lizzie sighed. "Sorry Hope, but my plan requires you to weaken her before the Merge happens."

"No, you don't understand," Hope rolled her eyes. "I literally wouldn't be able to fight her. And what plan? You _just_ found out that the Merge will happen tonight."

"What can I say, I possess both immense beauty and brains."

"Guess that's why you're head's so big."

"Oh, shut it," Lizzie smacked Hope's arm. "And I get that you're weak for my sister..."

"I am _not_ weak for Josie!"

"...So I took some inspiration from her little spelled minions."

The door to the room banged open.

"We doing this or what?" Alyssa Chang strode into the room, looking like she owned the place.

Lizzie gestured to the book. "If you would have bothered to show up on time, we'd be done already."

"You literally texted me three minutes ago."

_Lizzie texted her? I didn't even notice._

"What's going on?" Hope took a small step closer to the book.

"Sorry, Hope," Lizzie looked mildly uncomfortable. "I want to live. I need Josie to live too. This is for the best. Probably."

"For you maybe," Alyssa snorted before she started chanting a spell Hope never heard before. 

She stopped after repeating it three times.

Hope didn't feel anything change. "What did you do to me?" She glared at the two witches in the room.

"Your eyes are glowing yellow," Alyssa noticed. "Sit down and chill out ham."

Hope was on the bed before Alyssa even finished speaking. "Ham?"

"Your initials Mikaelson, keep up. With your horrible, atrocious manners, you might very well end up with a pig like... Never mind, got off track," Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I did that suggestion spell that Josie forced on her minions."

"I couldn't do it because Jo would feel it through our bond if I did," Lizzie smiled sheepishly at Hope. "Alyssa is one of the few people in the school with enough power to do it, so she did."

"Just like that?" Hope asked, forced to remain calm.

"It's my good deed of the month," Alyssa snarked out. "Now I suggest that you start taking orders from Lizzie, cause I'm out! I got things to do." The dark-haired witch gave them a mocking salute before strutting out of the room.

"Bet she meant Jed," Lizzie muttered before turning to Hope, who was staring at her disbelief.

"So, you need to mentally and physically exhaust Jo during the fight..."


	12. The Fight

"It's the event we've all been waiting for," The Necromancer declared into the microphone with a smug grin. "The... MERGE!"

The students' boos washed over the room as the cut-up and wrinkly ~~former~~ witch took off his red robe.

"Yeah, you like the taste of cape?" He swung it over his head and threw it out of the ring. "Eat that. Yeah!"

"What a weirdo," Somebody commented quietly in the audience.

"Yeah," The Necromancer took the mic again. "In the crimson corner and robe, hailing from Mystic Falls, Virginia, the former Queen of Codependency, the reigning sultan of Siphon..."

"What does that even mean?" Somebody murmured in the front row.

"...Josie Saltzman!" The Necromancer finally finished, the doors opened, and Josie finally entered the room with a single figure in a red robe walking behind her.

The music and the confetti made the entire situation seem way more dramatic than it needed to be.

Chad took off his hood and held up the rope for Josie as they entered the ring, but since nobody knew him, nobody cared.

"You are one hell of a hype man," Josie admitted after she took off her robe.

"Houdini said the same thing," The Necromancer declared. Josie smiled a little. "And in the blue corner, the Queen of Mean..."

"Oh my god, is Audrey here?"

"...the Blonde Banshee, She Who Is About To Be Siphoned Into Oblivion, your very own, Elizabeeeeeeeth Saltzman!"

The applause and music filled the room, but the doors didn't open. Lizzie wasn't there. 

Josie laughed before taking the mic from the Necromancer. "Well, my selfish sister didn't show up! Who am I gonna kill?" 

There were a few gasps and fearful screams around the room.

"Should it be...vampires? Maybe, witches," Josie turned around, trying to fully take in the sight of the audience around her. "How about some werewolves?"

The doors opened. Hope walked in. The students near her seemed thrilled.

"Just fight me," Hope said unenthusiastically as she pulled up the rope and got into the ring.

Josie stared at her. "What?"

"Somebody in this damn school took inspiration from the spell you put on your birthday party committee and used it on me," Hope rolled her eyes. "Now I have to fight you. And don't try sleeping spells, they prepared for that, and now with the amount of energizing spells on me, I probably won't be able to sleep for a week." Hope bounced on her toes.

Josie glowered, looking around the room suspiciously. "Fine."

Hope fired the first spell. Not that she wanted to, but, well...

Josie deflected it with a flick of her wrist before firing her own spell, which exploded one of the columns in the ring after Hope dodged out of the way.

Neither of the girls was fighting at full strength. Hope didn't want to hurt her friend, and because she wasn't explicitly ordered to, she wasn't going to do it. Josie, on the other hand, was trying to tire Hope out without hurting her. The tribrid was immensely powerful, true, but everybody has their limits.

So it went on for a while.

After the first fifteen minutes of the mind-numbingly boring fight (during which nobody got hurt), most students in the audience sat down on the floor and watched in boredom. After another ten, they started to get on their phones or just talking to people next to them.

And finally, after another half an hour, somebody got fed up.

Alyssa Chang concentrated on one of the wooden pieces lying on the stage, levitated it, and threw it at the distracted Josie.

Naturally, Hope was the first to notice.

"Jo!" The tribrid sped over to her brunette ~~girl~~ friend and covered her with her own body while starting to chant a barrier spell. 

She wasn't fast enough and was cut off mid-word.

"Hope!" Josie stared in shock at a giant piece of wood protruding out of the auburn-haired girl's stomach.

She moved to catch Hope as the tribrid collapsed.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Lizzie hissed out as she appeared next to Alyssa out of nowhere.

"You said mental exhaustion," The dark-haired witch shrugged. "Hope was barely exhausting her on the physical level, so ta-da, here you go. Dealing with the death of people you care about is mentally exhausting."

"Hope is dead?" The blonde siphoner asked her with wide, terrified eyes.

"Oh no, I just made sure that Josie can't hear her heartbeat before the fight started," Alyssa elaborated. "Hope's been through worse. She'll be fine. I think."

"You're either a genius or a psychopath," Lizzie breathed out.

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Well, I got your sister all mentally exhausted for you, so go on and do your Merge thing."

"A psychopath," Lizzie whispered as she made her way onto the stage. "Definitely a psychopath."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Hope tried to pull a Dorian, didn't work out too well. #SorryNotSorry?  
> The Merge is next chapter!


	13. The Merge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter is short. And canon-ish. Didn't want it to be this way, but I couldn't really change much. The Merge turned out pretty anticlimactic. I'll try to make it up to you guys with the next chapter.

MG caught Lizzie's arm just before she got into the ring. "Are you sure that the plan is still going to work, considering that Hope's current, uh, state?"

"She's unconscious, not dead," Lizzie closed her eyes for a second. "Just, uh, yeet her mind into Josie's when she falls down, okay? She'll figure it out."

"But Hope, I mean..." MG gestured at the pool of blood on the ring's floor looking a little lost.

"She doesn't need her body in top shape, just her mind," The blonde witch squeezed his shoulder. "She'll be fine. I hope."

"Real reassuring there."

"Just do the thing when the time comes, and we'll all be fine."

MG nodded and let her arm go. "Good luck Lizzie."

Lizzie just gave back a clearly nervous grin, and speed-walked to the ring before she lost her nerve.

"We still doing the whole merging thing, sis?" She paled when her twin turned her murderous gaze on her.

"You're late," Josie's voice was hoarse. "To your own funeral."

"We're both five years early if you ask me," Lizzie shrugged before turning to the audience that still surrounded the ring. "Let them out of here now, okay?"

Josie glared at her, and for a moment Lizzie thought that nobody would get out of the room alive.

Then Jo snapped her fingers, and the doors opened.

The audience got out pretty quickly and without much instructions being needed. After seeing the all-powerful tribrid fall, nobody wanted to stick around to see more death.

"Let's just get this over with," Josie sighed before walking toward the center of the ring. Lizzie followed her lead.

"Quite," The Necromancer agreed with a wicked smile. "It's time for the main event."

Josie took a switchblade from him with a smile. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this," She told her sister before cutting her palm.

"Apparently not long enough to think up something clever to say," Lizzie held out her palm for her sister to cut, which Josie had wasted no time doing.

They clasped their hands together and started chanting. _"Sanguinem disimilus, sanguinem generis fiantus. Sanguinem disimilus, sanguinem generis fiantus. Sanguinem disimilus, sanguinem generis fiantus…"_

The lights flickered. MG listened, unnerved, as the twins repeated the spell over and over again until they collapsed. He caught Lizzie as she fell, gently put her on the floor, then speed over to Hope, and did what Lizzie asked him to do. 

The doors banged opened. The newly awakened Dr. Saltzman and Kaleb burst into the room.

"Get away from them," Alaric glared at the Necromancer who rolled his eyes, mockingly held his hands up, and stepped back.

Dr. Saltzman dropped down and cradled Lizzie's unconscious body, muttering in denial.

"Don't cry, dad," His other daughter suddenly rose from the floor. "One less mouth to feed."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I typed in the Merge chant into Google Translate 'cause I was curious. If it's Latin like G.T. suspected then it goes something like this: "Extremely uneven, the Blood, the blood of the race, the wind blows from." On repeat. Over and over. Because that's not freaky at all.


	14. Meeting the Pig

Hope woke up in the woods. She sat up in a single sharp motion, and her hand immediately went to her stomach. There was a hole in her shirt, but there was no blood or any injuries.

"Weird," Hope muttered as she got up.

The woods around her were beautiful but definitely odd. For a split second, Hope thought that she was in the same woods where she last saw her mother when the Hollow killed her.

Then, she noticed the giant mushrooms.

And remembered what her mother told her when Hope asked if she'd see her again.

_"Not for a very, very long time." Her mother looked at her like she was a miracle. "So, you better have good stories, okay?"_

Hope knew that logically, her mother had no way to predict the future, but she chose to believe. And no matter how messed up their lives were, only four years passed since then. She couldn't be dead yet.

"So, I'm probably just unconscious," Hope decided. "And talking to myself. Wonderful."

She wandered around, taking in the odd quirks of the place. Giant mushrooms. Extremely high trees. A bipedal pig running away from her.

"Wait, what?" Hope blinked before taking off after the pig. "Please stop!"

"What do you want, lady?" The pig crossed its arms and glared at her when she finally caught up with it.

Hope froze. What did she want?

Suddenly her mind flashed back to Lizzie's room, just a couple hours ago.

_Oh. Alyssa was talking about how I'd end up with a pig. And now I'm having a conversation with a talking pig. Should this be worrying? I'm stuck in my own head. Of course, it's worrying._

"Well?" The pig looked around nervously. "I don't have all day!"

"Who are you?"

"Who are you, girlie?" The pig snorted. "You're obviously not from around these parts."

"I'm Hope," The auburn-haired girl smiled tentatively. "Again, who are you? And these parts? Where exactly are we?"

"You can call me, uh, Joseph," The pig stared back at her with no small amount of surprise in his eyes. "We are in Princess Josette's kingdom."

_Huh. Is this because I think that everybody should treat Josie like a princess?_

Hope hummed. "Could you tell me more?" She batted her eyelashes innocently.

"Fine. As long as you don't try to do magic while I talk," The Joseph agreed.

_How does he know I can do magic? Oh, right. This is in my head._

"Okay. Sure."

"Pull up a stump doll."

* * *

_Meanwhile, at the crypt near the Salvatore School_

"My father must be behind this," Josie crossed her arms. "Have a chat with him." She spelled it out for him when he just stared at her impatiently.

The flames of the candles flickered on the wall, seemingly mirroring her minion's reluctance.

The Necromancer gave a small nod, and she turned around.

Josie sighed. "I'll search my mind," She sat down on the floor. "For the thing that's out of place."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter I'm thinking Hope gushing about Josie to Joseph, because why not? Yay or nay?


	15. The Sleeping Beauty Scene

This was not what Hope expected. Then again, it's pretty hard to predict being stuck in your head with a pig telling you a story about one of your closest friends, who's apparently put herself to sleep...To protect other weird manifestations of Hope's mind?

"Right," Hope sighed as she got up. "Take me to her."

Joseph snorted. "No."

"Why not?" The tribrid rolled her eyes impatiently.

_Wow, am I usually this uncooperative?_

"The darkness will eat us both alive," The pig shook his head. "Sorry girlie, I don't want to die today. Or any day."

"I thought you said that would only happen only if I used magic?" Hope smirked at Joseph.

The pig caved in. "Fine. Only if you don't use magic though."

"Alright!" Hope smiled brightly. "Lead the way."

_I doubt anything can seriously hurt me in my own head. Unless somehow I end up reliving past memories... But then magic probably wouldn't really help anyway._

They wandered the woods for the next half an hour. Apparently Josie was in the middle of them and not in her castle. As they walked, Hope wondered why they didn't see anyone else. Sometimes she could've sworn she heard a branch breaking near them or someone breathing, but every time she looked around, they were alone. It was starting to unnerve the tribrid.

_Is this my subconsciousness' way of saying that being a loner only makes things worse? Or is it a good thing that I don't have that many voices in my head?_

Hope shook her head.

"Are we there yet?" She asked her companion.

Joseph twitched. "Almost." Before pulling a few branches out of the way to reveal a clearing in the woods, with ruins all around the place.

Her companion led her to the middle of the ruins, where she finally noticed the beautiful girl lying on a pedestal.

"Josie?" Hope asked as she ran up to her mind's manifestation of her best friend. Sure, the pig said that it was only a sleeping spell 'Jo' used, but it was still chilling to her Josie this way. "Josie? Josie, wake up!"

"You should try kissing her maybe," Joseph suggested with a small smile.

Hope blushed.

 _Even if it is in my head..._ "A nonconsensual kiss is never the answer." 

"Well, excuse me, little Miss Big Words," The pig rolled his eyes, looking slightly disappointed. "It could've saved her for all you know."

Hope shook her head. "Josie doesn't need to be saved."

"You sure?" Joseph looked at the unconscious body skeptically.

"Positive," Hope smiled. "Josie is the strongest person that I've ever known. Somehow, the things she went through, the things that would've broken other people, myself included, made her tougher and kinder."

The pig stared at her with wide eyes.

"If she truly needed to, Josie would find a way to save herself," Hope smiled sadly, remembering Josie saying that she broke the hourglass when she astral projected into the prison world. "And the people around her."

"What do we do now then?"

Hope thought about it for a moment. "You're not gonna like it."

"What?"

"Sorry," Hope smiled sheepishly. _"Surgere!"_

Her companion squealed in fright. "Hey!" He turned to glare at her. "We said no magic!"

"I know you're scared of the Darkness," Hope shook her head slightly as she talked. "but this is all in my head. Nothing can hurt us here."

"Oh!" The pig murmured and dragged her behind a wall as he heard a growl resonate around the ruins.

Hope peeked at the source of the snarling for a second before ducking back into safety.

"Excuse me, is this supposed to be my wolf form?" Her eyes flashed gold in fury.


	16. Josie Is Totally the Huntsman Too

"What do you think you're doing?" Joseph asked frantically after darting over to Hope's hiding spot and trying to hold her still when he saw that the tribrid was going to move towards the Darkness.

"I am going to go over there and hug the stuffing out of that thing to show that I love all parts of myself equally."

"Oh, geez," Joseph sighed. "I'm only going to say this once, so listen to me, okay?"

Hope nodded hesitantly.

"That thing is not your 'wolf'. That's the Darkness. We are _not_ in your head. And now, I'm going to drop the illusion I have on me. The Darkness is going to sense me using magic, so we need to run immediately afterward. Follow me. Got it?"

"Um, sure?"

Suddenly Joseph was surrounded by light, and Josie appeared in his place.

"Jo?" Hope glanced at the now-empty pedestal. "What?"

The Darkness stared confounded at the empty pedestal too.

"Run!" Josie whispered before darting into the woods.

"Right." Hope shook her head and sped after her.

The Darkness, _why is it a fricking wolf anyway?_ followed them.

They ran for what felt like hours, but in reality, it couldn't have been more than ten minutes. There was no way to tell time, with the trees blocking out the sunlight. They all looked the same to Hope: tall, dark, and brown with some green leaves.

"We're here." Josie finally murmured when they stopped in front of a small cottage.

"What is this place?" 

"The Huntsman's cabin."

"Of course." Hope sighed. "If we're not in my head, where are we? And you were Jos-...eph? Can you please explain what's happening, Josie?"

"We're not in your head." The siphoner confirmed. "We're in mine."

"What?" Hope stared at her blankly. "How did I get here?" She decided to play along.

"That's what I would like to know," Josie muttered. "At first, I thought the Super Squad sent you here to save me, but they wouldn't send you here without your consent or information on what you need to do, would they?"

Hope snorted. "They totally would, and you know it."

"Yep." Josie let the air out of her lungs slowly, trying to calm herself.

"I mean, it would make sense that they'd send me here when I was unconscious and wouldn't have been able to protest."

"Why were you unconscious?" Josie asked, just a little bit curious.

"Oh, I took a giant piece of wood to the gut during the fight."

"The fight?" Josie echoed her.

"Yeah, I was fighting dark you wh-"

"I tried to kill you?" Josie asked, horrified.

"NO!" Hope hurried to reassure her. "I was only fighting you because of a compulsion spell, and you knew it, so you didn't even really try to hurt me."

Josie was staring at the hole in Hope's shirt. "So how..."

"One of the witches levitated a piece of one of the posts at you, so I tried to shield you."

"Oh." Josie blinked, and a tear rolled down her cheek. "So it's just kind of my fault."

"No," Hope said firmly before reaching to hug her friend. "It was my choice, and I never want you to blame yourself, Jo."

_Now that I really think about it, if that piece of wood hit you, you probably would've turned into a heretic and it would've been game over for Lizzie if you managed to drink somebody's blood before the Merge._

"Okay." Josie smiled a bit. "Okay, we should be safe here for a while."

"Where is here exactly?" Hope asked as she gingerly sat down in the armchair near the window to keep watch.

"You know how my subconsciousness a fairy tale mess?"

_Your mind is beautiful._

Hope nodded.

"So if the Darkness is the Big Bad Wolf, this is the Huntsman's cabin."

"The wolf's enemy?"

"Yeah."

"So, where is the Huntsman?"

"I don't know, for as long as I've been in my subconscious, it's always been empty." Josie frowned.

Hope tilted her head a little. "You're the Huntsman."

"What?"

"You're the Light to the Darkness. The Huntsman to the Big Bad Wolf."

"Oh," Josie bit her lip, contemplating Hope's assumption. "Oh, no."


	17. Catching Up

Hope was stuck in a dilemma. What was she supposed to do? Encourage Light Josie to fight her dark counterpart? That would be the logical thing to do, wouldn't it be? You could argue that the world _needed_ good Josie back. But...

Wouldn't she be betraying a friend by doing that?

That's assuming that Dark Josie was a different person from good Josie. They spent days together, maybe not bonding, but at least trusting each other. That dork wasn't really a bad person per se... And even if she was, Hope was pretty familiar with dark urges and certainly couldn't judge her friend for them. That would be incredibly hypocritical. And if she wasn't, a different person that is, can you even betray a person half-way, while supporting the other half full-heartedly?

And the other option was to attempt to mediate things between the two parts, which just sounded like a disaster waiting to happen.

The decision was taken out of the tribrid's hands when the door was blown wide open.

"Little pig, little pig..." Dark Josie didn't notice Hope in the corner of the room yet. "Oh, you've dropped the disguise. Huh. What gives?"

"I got reminded by a friend that I can't hide forever," Good Josie smiled.

Hope looked back and forth at the two Josies. _I'll call the good one Princess Josette, and the debatably dark one Jo._

Jo followed Princess Josette's gaze and froze.

"Hope?" She whispered before darting over to the tribrid.

Josette's body became tense, ready to deflect an attack on the auburn-haired girl.

That wasn't necessary.

"You're alright!" Jo exclaimed joyfully before hugging the tribrid. "You're here?! How are you here?"

"I don't know that exactly. I'd assume that would be due to the Super Squad," Hope gave Jo a dimpled smile.

Jo nodded and took a small step back to take a look at her friend, before finally glancing at the stupefied, good version of herself.

"What?" The princess blinked, not a little confused by the display of affection.

"What just happened?" Jo guessed with a teasing smile. "What are you doing? What's going on? Come on, use full sentences!"

"All of that," Princess Josette deadpanned.

"Well, I was just reunited with my partner in crime of course!" Jo declared with a wide smile. "Didn't Hope tell you? She's my right hand! My helper. My general. My knight that doesn't need shining armor!"

Josette furrowed her brow. "What?" She asked again. "No, she didn't."

"Good on you Hope! Not fraternizing with the enemy," Dark Josie patted the tribrid's shoulder. 

Hope rolled her eyes. "I just didn't get a chance to. I would've."

Jo frowned. "Well then," She turned her head towards her good counterpart. "After you decided to take a retreat in this place..."

"You literally imprisoned me here."

"...I took control of our body. Sowed a little chaos," Jo shrugged. "And Hope didn't stop me. She didn't even try. Followed me from the start, she did."

Princess Josette stared at Hope in shock. Hope looked away.

"Then, when we came back to the school, somebody used dark magic to make her fight me," Dark Josie tsked. "Talk about fighting fire with fire."

The princess didn't take her eyes off the tribrid. Her gaze only grew more concerned when dark magic was mentioned.

"The last I saw, Hope was unconscious, bleeding on the floor of the gym," Jo scowled. "Then, I absorbed Lizzie in the Merge."

"What?" Josette rasped out for the third time in the last ten minutes.

"Oh yeah, that happened," Jo smiled maliciously. "You don't have to worry 'bout surviving past the age of twenty-two anymore!"

The princess stared blankly at her.

"Well, this was a nice surprise, seeing Hope here," Jo gestured with her hand and suddenly Hope was gone, waking up in the real world. "I suppose you want to fight now."


	18. The Interrupted Ritual

Hope's eyes blinked open and took in her surroundings. The room around her, if it could be called that as it was more of a closet, was dark and not a little stifling. She sat up and finally noticed the other person in the room.

"You're awake," MG stared at her apprehensively, both joy and dread reflected in his eyes. "It's too early."

"What?" Hope groaned and stretched her arms. "Where's Josie?"

She didn't bother to elaborate on which one. If she was really back at the Salvatore School, only one existed. And Hope needed to see her.

"She's at the crypt near the Old Mill," MG glanced around the room nervously. "I don't think Lizzie's done with the ritual yet."

"Lizzie's alive?" Hope's eyes widened and a relieved smile appeared on her face. "Wait, what ritual?"

"It forces Jo's dark magic into another person. This person being the Necromancer." MG followed her when she left the room and started running towards the woods.

"Are you kidding me?" She stared at him incredulously, never breaking her stride.

MG shook his head. Hope cursed under her breath.

Then she ran faster.

 _"Magia tollox de terras,"_ She heard Lizzie chanting as she burst into the room.

She took in the situation. Lizzie was chanting while waling around Josie who was laid spread out in a circle of lit candles. Dr. Saltzman was laying on the floor. He must've not seen her coming and got knocked out when she suddenly opened the door.

Lizzie gave her a _'what the hell are you doing?'_ sort of look but didn't stop chanting.

 _"_ _Magia tollox de ter-"_ was as far as the blonde twin got before Hope tackled her. MG couldn't stop her because he was too busy checking on Dr. Saltzman.

"What?" Lizzie groaned from the floor. Hope was already moving and dragging the brunette siphoner out of the circle.

"No! Stop it!" Lizzie's eyes widened. "You can't just stop mid incantation. There are consequences Hope!"

"Good thing I didn't do that then," Hope snarked as she checked Josie's pulse. "You did."

"I swear Mikaelson..." The blonde trailed off as she stared at her sister.

Her sister, who was glowing a little in Hope's arms.

"Uh, is she supposed to do that?" Hope blinked in mild surprise. 

"No, you witless wonder baby, you did this," Lizzie was forced to close her eyes as the light grew brighter and brighter.

About half a minute later the light dimmed enough so that they could open their eyes without hurting themselves.

It was then Hope discovered that she was holding two bodies.

Two bodies that looked so alike that they could be passed off as identical twins.


	19. Office Conversation #1

"Let me get this straight..." Dr. Saltzman paced around his office, looking overwhelmed. "Interruption of a magical ritual and a mental wills battle equates to Josie splitting in two?"

"No." Dark Josie rolled her from the sitting on. "Magical ritual and metal battle interruption is a big part of it, but the timing had to have been important."

"Timing?" Hope asked from her seat to the left of her.

"My supposedly better half was killing me the moment you interrupted the ritual." Jo scowled. "Thanks for that by the way."

The room was silent for a couple of minutes.

"The hell?" Kaleb asked what everybody was thinking.

"I wasn't killing her!" Good Josie defended herself from her spot next to Hope, to the left of her, to be precise. "I was trying to put her to sleep."

Jo stared at her blankly. "How can you force somebody to go to sleep by skewering them with an axe?"

Dr. Saltzman rubbed his eyes. He was getting a headache.

"I think professor Vardemus taught us that trick." Lizzie piped up.

Josette and Hope nodded.

"What are your teachers teaching you witches?" MG asked, receiving a quick "You don't want to know." from Hope.

_When you tell teachers they can only teach students defensive spells, they tend to get creative._

"And how come I didn't know about this?" Alaric groaned.

"Because you're the weak link, and always get knocked out." Jo shrugged. "I'm surprised you still know anything by this point. Would've thought you'd be brain-dead."

She got some stares and a "Gee, thanks." from her father.

"So anyway." Dark Josie shook her head. "She mortally wounded me with an axe. I think that's when the vampire blood kicked in."

"What are you talking about now?"

"I had precautions, in case I died." Jo smirked. "I wonder what would've happened if good me killed me. Would she have turned into half a vampire? Is that a thing?"

Good Josie was looking increasingly pale.

"You okay?" Hope whispered to her.

"Fine." Josette leaned into it when Hope gave her a half hug.

"So are you a heretic now?" MG asked Jo.

"I don't know." The siphoner admitted. "Hope gave me some of her blood and my wound healed up. I feel normal."

"So, no unusual urges to bite someone's neck?" Dr. Saltzman checked, just to be sure.

"Well, I do have a strange urge to touch your neck." Jo leaned closer to Hope. "With my face."

Kaleb fought the urge to facepalm. Lizzie didn't bother.

"Oh my god." She groaned before reaching for her newest piece of jewelry. "Hope, how can I regulate the necklace so that it does its thing when you and Josie get all nauseating?"

Hope rolled her eyes. "You'll figure it out."

"So, this is great and all, but can we do this tomorrow?" MG asked. "Or the day after? Some of us have classes to attend tomorrow morning, and It's getting pretty late."

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Dr. Saltzman yawned before turning to Jo. "You can crash with Hope tonight."

"Huh?" Hope looked up, confused.

"What?" Josette glared daggers at her father.

"Fine with me." Her mirror image smiled.

"What about Alyssa?" Hope asked the headmaster.

"Ms. Chang has been expelled for assaulting you at the gym, Hope." Dr. Saltzman frowned. "She left the premises about three hours ago."

"Good." Jo's eyes glimmered dangerously. Hope had a feeling that she didn't really mean it. "Come along helper."

"Oh, not this again." Hope rolled her eyes before following Jo out of the room.

"Come back at noon tomorrow!" Dr. Saltzman called after them.

"Fine." He heard Hope's voice resonate around the hall.

"Why didn't you look anybody in the eye when you said Alyssa was expelled dad?" Lizzie asked her father.

Josette stared at him imploringly. "Please tell me you didn't stick her in another prison world."

"No!" Alaric huffed. "You know your uncle Kai's prison world fell apart, and the other one was connected to it."

"Real reassuring dad." The brunette siphoner glowered at him. "What aren't you telling us?"

Alaric sighed. "I did expel Alyssa. And she did leave."

"And?" Lizzie urged him to continue.

"And I made some calls. She's blacklisted from the other two supernatural schools in the states."

"So?"

"She left for Belgium."

"Oh." Josie stared at her dad for a second before snorting. "That's it?"

Both Lizzie and Alaric gaped at her. Sometime during their conversation the vampires slipped out of the room.

"Guys, Belgium isn't a trigger word for me or anything." Josie shook her head. "Sure, I miss Penelope. Does that mean I have to flinch and look traumatized every time someone mentions the name of a fairly well known country?"

"Well, when you put it like that..." Lizzie trailed off before grabbing her sister's hand and dragging her towards the door. "Come on. Good night dad!"

"Night girls."


	20. The Morning After

"Josie?" Hope awakened to the sound of the creaking floor. "Why are you pacing at..." The tribrid glanced at the clock on her nightstand. "...7:12 in the morning?"

Her new roommate sat down on her bed.

"I don't know!" The siphoner threw her hands up in the air. "I feel... Exhausted. But I can't fall asleep again."

Hope frowned.

"That sucks." Hope slowly got up from her bed. "Want me to get you some coffee?"

"That would actually be lovely Hope." Josie smiled. "Thank you."

Hope nodded before grabbing a change of clothes and heading for the bathroom. After brushing her teeth and changing, she headed to the kitchen, where she found the other Saltzman twin.

"Hey Lizzie." Hope blinked at the blonde witch who was nursing a steaming cup with a mouthwatering aroma. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Jo." Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Guess what was the first thing she decided to do when we got to our room?"

"Sleep?" Hope grabbed a Grumpy Cat mug before turning to face her friend.

"No! I wish." The blonde groaned. "She chose to catch up on a week's worth of missing homework."

"Huh?" The tribrid was already looking in the pantry for snacks.

"Yeah." Lizzie shook her head. "I swear, I love her and everything but my sister is a nerd. A nerd who didn't sleep all night and asked me questions about chemistry at three in the morning, which I mean... Molecules? Fine. Moles though? Does this sound like something I'd know about? Does this sound like something any of us at this school _should_ know about?"

Hope patted her shoulder sympathetically. "Did you sleep at all?"

Lizzie nodded. "Yeah. Not counting chemistry, my sister is a freaking genius, so I got a couple hours in. She, on the other hand, just crashed about an hour ago."

Hope winced. "Right, so I got to get going. You going to be okay?"

"When did you become the mom friend?" Lizzie asked with a small smirk and got a glare for that. "Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna be fine. Go do your superhero routine or whatever and leave me to brood."

"Brooding is typically my thing." Hope retrieved the now full cup from under the expresso machine.

"Whatever." The blonde siphoner groaned. "You can have 'your thing' back after I drink like at least three more cups of coffee."

"Later Lizzie."

The blonde waved her off.

The walk back to her room wasn't very long, for which Hope was extremely grateful for. Balancing a couple different boxes of cookies and a hot mug wasn't something she was particularly good at.

"Oh, you're back." Jo hopped up from her bed and hurried to take the goods off of Hope's hands.

"Yeah." Hope smiled. "Enjoy. I'm going in a run, alright?"

"Mhm."

Hope left the room with a smile on her face. Seeing Josie's darkest side stuffing her face with Oreos, not even noticing a milk moustache from her cappuccino was comical.


	21. Hope's Degree

Lizzie collapsed in Speechless Spellcasting 101 at 9:45.

Rumors spread around the school like wildfire. Some thought she was hiding a lethal wound from the Merge. Others believed that Lizzie was suffering from an incurable disease. A small minority swore that extremely upset before passing out. There was even gossip about a pregnancy.

None of those rumors were true.

"What happened?" Dr. Saltzman paced around the infirmary.

The school nurse, Mr. Kiang shrugged.

"There doesn't seem to be a single underlying cause for Ms. Saltzman fainting. If I had to guess I'd say exhaustion. Both on physical and mental levels."

Hope raised an eyebrow as Jo snorted.

"Lizzie only fainted once before. Well, not counting the Merge." The siphoner started to explain with a small smirk on her face. "It was when she caught dad making out w-"

"Sh!" Dr. Saltzman scowled. "We're not talking about that right now Josie."

"The point is," the brunette continued as if she hasn't heard him, "Lizzie never fainted from _emotions_ , and she probably never will."

"So it's physical then." Josette nodded in agreement from her place on a nearby bed.

"Ms. Saltzman has gone through various traumatizing events." Mr. Kiang huffed. "It would do you well to not underestimate their effect on the already dire state of her mental health."

Both Josies glared at him.

"And it would do you well to not underestimate Lizzie." Hope gave him a dirty look. "You don't know the half of the things she went through. You shouldn't assume anything-"

"Excuse me Ms. Mikaelson." The nurse scowled. "When did you get a degree in-"

"A couple months ago."

"What?" The Saltzmans stared at her in shock.

"After I got out of Malivore, I had nothing to do." Hope shrugged. "I figured earning a degree or two would keep me busy. So, I spent a lot of time and money on my online education."

The silence lasted a couple seconds before the nurse huffed and stormed out of the room.

"I need a drink." Dr. Saltzman sat down next to Josette.

"So what, you were bored an and decided to somehow get about 8 years worth of knowledge in your brain in what a week?" Jo stared at the tribrid in fascination.

"Nothing quite so drastic." Hope shrugged. "I just got an associate's degree in psychology. And I started on it way before I jumped into that damn pit."

"When did you have time for it before Malivore?" Josette asked in a small voice.

"You know, when I was still a loner." Hope grinned. "I wanted to understand why you dad enjoyed getting beat up by me so much."

"Hope." Dr. Saltzman gawked at her.

Everybody felt their heads turn at the sound of laughter that came from the blonde siphoner.

"Lizzie! You're awake." Josette hopped up from the bed she was sitting on and made her way to her sister.

"Yes, I am. " Lizzie sat up. Her eyes darted between the two versions at her twin. "And I have a bone to pick with you. Both of you."


	22. The Merge 2.0

"You two have been running on half power or less ever since you split." Lizzie sighed. "I didn't notice it at first, I just thought that we were all exhausted from yesterday's events. Now, it's getting hard to ignore because of our twin connection."

"Did you pass out because of me? Us?" Josette looked terrified of the possibility.

Lizzie slowly nodded. "The bond seems to have split in two. I can still feel both halves of you. But both of you are incomplete... And suffering because of it."

"Is this the consequences you mentioned when I interrupted the ritual?" The tribrid asked Lizzie and received a shrug in return.

"I didn't mean to hurt any of you guys." Hope looked like she was about to start crying.

_This didn't happen in Once Upon a Time. Or Supergirl._

"It's not your fault." Alaric put a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. "You just woke up and you were disoriented, and nobody explained to you what's going on."

"How do we fix this?" Josette furrowed her brows before turning to her lookalike. "You've been awfully quiet."

"Well, the solution is obvious, isn't it?" Her darker part responded with a downcast expression. "We merge together and everything would go back to normal."

Lizzie groaned and let herself fall back on the bed. "Of course. But would the Merge even work? You're not twins."

"No. We're not." Jo agreed. "We're even more identical."

"It's not about looks."

"No, mean identical twins came from the same egg. They're like a person split in two. We're technically the same."

"Okay. Fine. Whatever." Lizzie shrugged. "We've got almost nothing left to loose anyway. I can feel you growing weaker even now."

"Alright." Jo pulled a switchblade out of one of her pockets and flicked it open. She cut a thin like along her palm before handing the knife to her mirror image.

Josette did the same thing.

They started chanting at the same time.

_ "Sanguinem disimilus, sanguinem generis fiantus.  Sanguinem disimilus, sanguinem generis fiantus.  Sanguinem disimilus, sanguinem generis fiantus… " _


	23. The Aftermath of the Merge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow you guys, 7000 views? Never thought that would happen. I'm excited enough to post chapters twice a day! You all are a great audience.

They didn't know what to expect from the ritual.

Needless to say, that made the situation even more frightening.

As soon as both Josies finished chanting they collapsed. Perhaps that part could be predicted. What wasn't expected was that their bodies started to fuse into one another as if they were made out of playdough. It was morbid to watch, but then the blinding light made a reappearance too.

After a minute of feeling raw magic join both part of Josies, the light subsided.

A single unconscious body was laying on the floor.

Lizzie was the first to move. She dropped to her knees to check her twin's pulse.

"Oh, thank god." She breathed out when she found it.

Hope felt herself exhale too. She trudged over, gently picked Josie up bridal carry style and deposited her on an empty bed with a relieved smile.

It was then Mr. Kiang wandered back into the room. He took a glance at the droplets of blood on the floor, at Hope standing protectively over the sole brunette siphoner in the room, and at the rest of the Saltzmans who were grinning like lunatics. He turned around and walked right back out.

Dr. Saltzman snorted. "Right, I've got to go too."

"What?" Lizzie rolled her yes. "Really dad? Right now?"

"Sorry dear, the paperwork is calling my name." Dr. Saltzman winced. "I've been neglecting it for so long."

"Whatever." Lizzie muttered dejectedly before settling on a bed next to Josie's while her dad left the room.

Hope sat down next to her.

"You alright?"

"Peachy." The blonde smirked. "You know what I just realized?"

"Hmm?"

"The talent show was a like a week or two after out birthday last year. So that's something to look forward to." Lizzie beamed at the memory of her sister singing. "I bet I can get away with a party afterwards this year, since out b-day party this year was a bit..."

"Terrifying?" Hope guessed. "Awful? Dull?"

"I was going to say lame, but yours work too." Lizzie grinned. "You're invited Mikaelson."

"I'm not getting you another gift." Hope rolled her eyes.

"Wasn't going to ask for one." Lizzie shrugged, playing with her newest jewelry piece. "But do show up, would you? Josie would want you there. And me too I guess."

"Sure." Hope started playing with her hands awkwardly.

Lizzie smiled before taking her phone out of her pocket and pulling up a game to waste some time.

They stayed in the infirmary until Josie woke up hours later.


	24. I'll Get Over You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now, if lyrics can't be used here, rewriting this chapter will be a challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I've never heard of Loving Caliber before. The inspiration for this chapter came from listening to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arhHgfkcFbk, if you guys are interested. Not trying to be an advertiser or anything, I'm just extremely into the music right now. Sleepy, if you are reading this, this chapter is dedicated to you!  
> P.S.: Disclaimer: I don't own any of the songs or lyrics I use.

For the time since the summer, it was peaceful at Salvatore Boarding School.

After Josie woke up, Hope and the twins discovered that the brunette siphon was mostly the same as she was before Clarke, disguised as Headmaster Vardemus, infiltrated the school. Josie knew that she was capable of darkness, as it was a part of her, but her rare impulses towards it were eclipsed by affection for the people around her and careful consideration of consequences that may occur due to her actions.

Josie's calm and kind attitude in turn relaxed people all over the place.

So yes, things were peaceful and quiet at the Salvatore School.

With a single exception.

"C'mon, I told you Lan." Hope backed away from the messy haired boy. "We're done."

"Why can't you just give me another chance Hope?" The phoenix grabbed his ex-girlfriend's wrist and tugged her closer to himself. "I just woke up from some sort of death sleep and you can't even spend five minutes in my presence. Didn't you promise me nothing would change?"

Hope's eyes flashed gold. "Landon, let me go."

"Hope." The boy reluctantly let her hand go and watched her move towards the Saltzmans' table in the cafeteria. "Didn't we promise each other forever and always?"

Hope stopped moving but didn't turn to face him again.

"You can't get rid of me, remember?" Landon continued with a smile.

"It was foolish for me to get into a relationship with you just because you can't seem to die Landon." Hope sighed. "Probably unhealthy too. A healthy relationship wouldn't be based on whether or not the participants would lose each other or not."

"What are you talking about?" Landon frowned. "You loved me. I loved you. I love you Hope."

"Maybe I did." Hope sighed. "It doesn't matter now."

"Of course it does." The phoenix moved towards the tribrid, but stopped when her eyes turned amber for a split second. "Give me a chance Hope."

Hope shook her head and walked away.

She sighed when she was out of his hearing range before heading to talk to the headmaster of the school. After a short conversation, during which one of her friends sped over and volunteered their help, she joined her friends at their table in the cafeteria.

"You okay?" Josie whispered.

Hope nodded and slowly reached over to squeeze the siphoner's hand. "I'm fine Jos."

"The hobbit is getting more and more desperate." Lizzie noted with a frown. "Should I do something?"

"No. It's fine." Hope glanced at the teachers' table. "I'll handle it."

"Ooh." Lizzie smirked. "Anything I can help with?"

"Kaleb's already helping." Hope shook her head. "You guys are just going to have to enjoy the show."

Just about everybody who sat at the table turned to look at the representative of the vampire faction of the school.

"What? I ain't no snitch." Kaleb smirked. "You'll have to wait for the drama just like everybody else."

* * *

_A couple hours later_

The whole school was gathered in the auditorium. The twins and MG sat in the front, just having finished performing their numbers in the show. Rafael and Landon had a table for themselves near the stage too.

The room was in a state of shocked silence, as Kaleb Hawkins and Hope Mikaelson were on the stage.

Kaleb started playing the piano at the same time as Hope started strumming a guitar that she retrieved from the Mikaelson mansion.

"I look in the mirror," Hope began singing with a shaky voice, "Who's looking back at me?"

Kaleb hummed along, but mostly focused on the melody.

"I don't know what happened," Hope looked at Landon, "Guess we weren't meant to be..."

The boy looked crushed. Raf put a hand on his shoulder, but Landon shrugged it off.

"I know we had problems, I thought we could fix them." She tried to so hard to make it work. "But we got tired, there's nothing left to do."

Landon obviously didn't agree with her, but there was nothing he could do now. She looked away.

"But to say goodbye and try to move on, I'll get over you." _If I didn't already._ "Only wish I knew how to go on..." She sang with very little enthusiasm.

"Baby you and me, we're so messed up together." The tribrid winced at the term of endearment but continued singing. "Even if we tried, we'd be stuck here forever."

Hope practically threw his words from this morning back at him.

She couldn't bring herself to regret it.

"I don't understand right now how to make it through." Hope sang, not really meaning it. "But I'll get over you, and it's not like I'm gonna hate you..."

For a second she thought she saw him smile.

"It's what it is, nothing left that we could do, even though it hurts right now, we will make it through." Kaleb sang along with Hope. He seemed to be far away. "I'll get over you, I'll get over you."

She wondered if this was about Alyssa.

"Back when I met you, we were like fireworks." Hope glanced at Josie smiling. "Thought nothing could break us, but, oh, how we got burned."

The tribrid focused back on Landon. "Look at us now, we scream, we fight and no one knows the reason..."

Landon winced, remembering their latest fight.

"Now we're getting out of line, ooh," The auburn haired girl smiled sadly, "Now say goodbye and try to move on, I'll get over you."

She sang the lyrics over and over again a couple times, until her fingers hurt and Kaleb stopped playing the piano.

For a few seconds the room was completely silent.

And then the clapping started. Hope winced from the sheer loudness of the sound. Sometimes super hearing was practical. Others, like this one...

Josie siphoned from MG and conjured something as Hope jumped off the stage.

She was handed the red object when she got close enough to the Saltzmans.

"A flower?" Hope raised an eyebrow.

"A chrysanthemum." Josie nodded with a smile.

"Encore!" MG yelled from the top of his lungs.

"Encore!" Lizzie parroted him with a smile.

"Encore! Encore! Encore!" The students chanted around them.

Hope smiled.


	25. The Party

"Hey Hope?" Dr. Saltzman called out the tribrid's name as she stumbled out of the auditorium. "Could you look after Josie at the party?"

"What?" Hope turned to face him, looking slightly confused.

"I already asked MG to keep an eye out for Lizzie." Alaric scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "It's just to make sure that they are okay after the last couple of weeks. Plus, you know, alcohol."

"I don't know." Hope deadpanned.

"Right." Dr. Saltzman winced. "You don't drink. Because you're underage. Right. You're very mature for your age Hope."

"Thanks." Hope raised an eyebrow. "It's the trauma."

Alaric looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there, so Hope took pity on him. "Alright. I'll hang out with Josie at the party."

_As if I wasn't already going to do that._

"Great!" He smiled at her. "I'd do myself, but Lizzie banned me from her parties because apparently I'm an exasperating buzzkill when I get tipsy."

"Later Dr. Saltzman." Hope snorted before finally departing.

The party was in full swing in the Mill by the time the tribrid got there. Lizzie went all out with the decorations to make up for the Merge Day debacle. Her twin went along with her and helped. Josie's memories about her 'dark days' were fuzzy. She'd get random flashes of her time with Hope or the Merge. Weirdly enough, the memories after the split were clear as day. Josie remembered what both parts of her experienced before they were put back together. It was disorienting trying to remember what you did at a certain time and recount two different situations.

So it wasn't a surprise that at the party, Josie decided to relax, which was why when Hope found her she was already a bit tipsy.

"Hope!" She positively beamed at the auburn haired girl before reaching to hug her.

"Jo." Hope smiled back after the brunette let her go. "Enjoying yourself?"

"I'd be enjoying myself more if you decided to sing another song at the show." Josie pouted.

"Sorry." Hope shook her head with a sheepish smile. "What happened tonight was a one time thing."

"Aw." Josie pouted harder and Hope had to look away before she melted into a puddle.

"Too much of a spectacle." The tribrid shook her head ruefully. "I sang that song to make a point. Didn't really like feeling so...Exposed."

Josie nodded sagely. "It can be overwhelming."

"Yeah, you'd know." Hope smiled.

Josie's eyes lit up. "Would you sing for me sometime?" The brunette bounced up and down on her toes in excitement. "Just me. Not a big audience. Nothing to feel vulre- vulneer- _exposed_ about."

"Maybe." Hope leaned back against a tree. "No promises."

"Kay." Josie's suddenly noticed the refreshment table that she helped set up. "Do you want a drink? Let's get you a drink."

Hope laughed as the brunette darted toward the table and followed her. "I'm not drinking the mystery punch."

" 's fine." Josie nodded seriously. "You got options."

After a surprisingly long conversation about pros and cons of sodas, alcohol and any mixture of both (spoiler: there weren't many pros), Hope settled on a can on Mountain Dew.

She spent the next couple hours by Josie's side, getting roped into playing beer pong, dancing, and just having fun in general.

The fun screeched to a stop when Josie stumbled into a couch and fell onto it.

"You okay Jo?"

Hope got a low groan as an answer.

"Guess that means it's time for you to go back to your room." Hope awkwardly patted Josie's back.

Another groan.

"Alright, come on." Hope carefully pulled Josie up from the couch and started to drag her toward the school.

"Noooooo, it's too early." Josie closed her eyes and tried not to move.

"What do you mean it's too early?" Hope frowned, confused. "Too early for what?"

"Lizzie said she wants the room till midnight."

"Huh? Why would sh- Oh. Oh, okay." Hope grimaced. "So didn't need to know that."

"Sorry." Josie shrugged. "Ooh, let's go to the dock!"

"Why?" Hope raised an eyebrow in interest.

"The moon should be pretty t'night. 's a crescent."

"Waning or waxing?"

"Dunno. You're such a nerd."

"Said the girl who went straight for the homework after being freed from her own subconscious."

"It was one time!" Josie pouted.

"Sure it was."

When they finally got out of the woods and to the docks, the world around them seemed a little brighter. Josie was right. It was a bright crescent moon that lit up the sky. Thousands of stars surrounding it didn't hurt either.

"So pretty." Josie murmured. She wasn't looking at the sky.

"Yeah." Hope looked fixatedly at the stars.

"So." The siphoner sat down at the edge of the dock. "What's new with you Hopey?"

"Hopey?" The tribrid turned to stare at Josie as she sat down too.

"Yeah. Lizzie and me have lots of nicknames for you." Josie nodded with a small smile. "Like she used to call you Mope Mikaelson a lot before you started hanging out with us."

The corners of Hope's lips twitched up. "Should I be offended?"

"Nah, it was friendly-ish." Josie quickly shook her head. "And even if it wasn't I thought you were pretty...Dope anyway."

"Doesn't that mean stupid?" Hope snorted.

"Or cool, you know." Josie grinned.

Hope gave a slight laugh. "Yeah, you're pretty cool yourself."

Josie hummed in agreement and leaned over to put her head onto Hope's shoulder.

"Did you know that Josette is a nickname for the French name Josephine?" Hope started softly. " Josie's a nickname for Josette. And we keep giving you nicknames like Jo or JoJo."

"Or Jos." Josie smiled.

"Yeah." Hope smiled. "So you have like thrice the amount of name based nicknames compared to everyone else."

"Cooool." Josie drawled out with her eyes closed.

"Hey do you think it's midnight yet?" Hope's voice stirred Josie out of her thoughts. "It's late. We've got to get you to your bed."

"Yeah." Josie opened her eyes to glance at her new watch. "12:07."

"Alright then." Hope got up with a small sigh and helped Josie to her feet. "Let's go?"

Josie nodded.

The walk to the school seemed long and daunting. It was made worse by the fact that Josie would stumble from time to time due to the amount of alcohol in her system and Hope would stumble because she wouldn't pay attention to her surrounding due to the brunette walking next to her.

When she finally got to the twins' room the door was locked. There was a sock attached to the handle and a tie hanging from it.

They stared at it for a few moments before Hope decided to break the silence. "You can crash in my room again."

"Thanks Hopey." The brunette gave her a tired smile.

_What is it with you and weird monikers? First helper and now this._

The walk to Hope's room was less difficult. Mostly because the school used to be a mansion, and no matter how grand the mansion is, stumbling around in a house is much easier than stumbling around in a forest at night.

A couple of minutes after they arrived to Hope's room and took care of personal hygiene, they crashed on their beds.

Suddenly, neither was tired.

"Hey Hope, could you sing something now?" Josie asked from her bed.

"What, like a lullaby?" Hope frowned frim her own. "I don't think I know any."

"Anything." Josie shrugged.

"Okay." Hope closed her eyes and tried to remember the lyrics to that song that she listened to a lot since she got out of Malivore.

Josie turned on her side to watch her.

"I want somebody, to hold my hand," Hope started with a random line because she couldn't remember the beginning, "Cause I've got my head in the clouds, but I'm getting really scared of heights..."

The brunette watched her sing with fascination. It was so hard to imagine Hope being scared of anything, but at the end of the day Hope was only human. Well, perhaps not to some people, but to her loved ones.

"...I used to spend time with all my friends but, who's going to like me, if I'm not there..." Hope trailed off.

Josie couldn't take it anymore. She stood up and made her way to Hope's bed.

"Mind if I?" She laid down when she saw Hope shake her head with a small smile and gently grabbed the tribrid's hand. "I'm here for you. For as long as you want me to be."

Hope gave her a teary smile. "I know."

"Good." Josie nodded seriously before closing her eyes. She fell asleep a few minutes later. Hope was not as lucky. She tossed and turned for a while as her body couldn't seem to decide if it was hot or cold, never letting go of her friend's hand.

_I have a feeling that it's going to be a long night._


	26. Merge Theory

"It's not a curse." Josie woke up to a whisper.

When she opened her eyes, Josie saw that Hope was resting next to her, staring vacantly at the ceiling. The tribrid's hair was slightly messed up and her eyes were a little bloodshot. Josie was still holding Hope's hand.

"What?" Josie frowned.

"It's not a curse Josie." Hope's eyes focused on her. "Come on, we've got to tell the others."

"Huh?"

But Hope was already gone. By the time Josie got out of bed, the tribrid was already running out of the bathroom, looking slightly more presentable.

"Where are we going?" Josie stared at her crush, slightly concerned by her behavior.

"Your dad's office." Hope blinked. "Are you ready? Let's go."

"Okay, okay." Josie laughed at Hope's impatience before jogging to catch up with the tribrid who was already walking out of the room and into the hall.

While walking they found Lizzie and MG hanging out in the common room. Hope quickly convinced them to come with them.

Dr. Saltzman was doing paperwork in his office.

"Hope? Josie?" He got up from him desk. "Is everything alright?"

"I have a theory on the Merge." Hope didn't beat around the bush.

Alaric sighed. 

"Alright, sit down." He gestured to the couch.

Hope plopped downed on it without saying anything. Josie hesitantly sat down next to her. Dr. Saltzman sat back down in his chair. Lizzie propped herself up against the edge of his desk, while MG remained standing.

"The floor's all yours Hope." The principal gestured for the tribrid to start talking.

_I'm good with the couch, thanks._

"So, I couldn't really sleep last night, so I started thinking about the twins and the Merge." Hope started tentatively.

"The twins." Lizzie muttered with a small smirk. "Josie you mean."

Hope either didn't hear her or she ignored the blonde siphoner.

"We're operating under the assumption that the Merge is a curse cast upon the members of the Gemini coven centuries ago, right?"

"Yes, that's what Jo was told by the elder coven members before they were slaughtered." Alaric scowled.

"What if it's not a curse though?" Hope scratched the back of her head hesitantly.

"What do you mean by that?" MG asked.

"What kind of curse requires its victims to chant the incantations to power it?" Hope tried to answer his question with her own.

Lizzie frowned. "None. So, if it's not a curse, the what it is? And why did bio-mom's coven lie about it?"

"Okay." Hope sighed. "Let's imagine a theoretical situation: it's taking place hundreds of years ago, before the Merge existed."

Lizzie rolled her eyes, but decided to play along.

"And we're talking about one of our ancestors now?"

"Yeah, so. Generation A: everything's peachy, nothing's wrong, the Merge doesn't exist. Person A lives a long, happy life."

"Person A? Let's go with Ashley." Lizzie closed her eyes to imagine the situation better.

"Whatever. Ashley grew up, gave birth to a kid, and grew old. Cue Generation B."

"Blake."

"Sure. So what if Blake accidentally split himself in two in his late adulthood or something, just like what happened with Josie. After realizing that he couldn't live as two people for long, he created a solution to the problem."

"The Merge." Dr. Saltzman leaned back in his chair.

"Yes. So let's say his good and bad parts combined and the good 'won'."

"Happy ending. Great."

"Not quite yet. Blake grew up and made sure that his spell couldn't be weaponized by only making it accessible to his bloodline. After that he had kids. Identical twins. Let's say he dies when they were small."

Lizzie raised her eyebrows. "I don't like where this is going."

"So, the kids, Generation C..."

"Camila and Charlotte." MG's effort got him a smile from Lizzie.

"...grew up without their father, raised by their coven. One of them was kind, another was cruel." Hope gestured with her arms, trying to paint a picture. "The coven knew what happened to Blake, so they decided to convince the twins to merge with the spell only they knew. If the good one won, great - they'd get rid of the cruel one that way. If the vicious one won, perhaps a part of the good one would make her more empathetic. Easier to take down."

"I _really_ don't like where this is going." Lizzie frowned.

"So, the twins merged. The one who survived had kids too." Hope closed her eyes for a second. "The coven saw the 'benefits' from the Merge, like the winner being more magically strong and maybe more empathetic, so they made the Merge seem like it was inevitable, when it was really optional."

"So, what you're saying is they lied." Alaric scowled.

Hope nodded. "Up until Generation J. Josette Laughlin and Kai Parker, with their siblings."

"They didn't merge."

"Kai was locked in a prison world." Hope nodded. "But when he got out he way past the age of twenty two. At least mentally. Neither he, nor his twin showed any symptoms of being worse off due to not merging. Not even a compulsion to merge."

The silence was deafening.

"So..."

"The only reason the coven except for Josie and Lizzie died was because Kai was a psychopath. But he was one before he was twenty two, so that can't be blamed on the Merge or the lack of it." Hope rubbed the space between her eyes. "If he stayed in the prison world Jo probably would've grew old like she was doing. Dr. Saltzman how old was she when you first met her?"

"Thirty seven." Alaric replied softly.

"So, she obviously survived past the twenty two deadline." Hope reached for Josie's hand.

"She didn't merge and survived." Josie whispered clutching the tribrid's hand.

"Yeah, so if I am right, and the necessity of the Merge and the twenty two deadline are both myths..." Hope glanced between the twins with a fond expression. "...Then you don't have anything to worry about. Dark Josie said that the Merge is 'like driving a car or smoking cigarettes. Nobody wants you to do it before you're old enough, but you can.' You can survive all your life without driving or smoking. I'm sure that's not what she meant, but that's what prompted my line of thinking."

"But... Caroline..." Dr. Saltzman trailed off.

"What if the only reason for Mrs. Salvatore-Forbes not being able find a solution for the Merge after decades of looking is that the Merge doesn't need a solution?"

"Mom..." Lizzie blinked back tears before darting out of the room.

MG followed her.

Hope stared after them in confusion.

"Hope." Josie squeezed her hand. "If you're right than mom wasted years for nothing. Lizzie always wanted her to spend time with us and now if we find out that she could have..."

"Oh." Hope closed her eyes. "I need to get some tact. Do you know where I can buy some?" She joked weakly.

"You're fine." Alaric shook his head slowly. "It's better to realize this now than five years later when..."

"Okay." Hope sighed. "Hey Dr. Saltzman, any chance you could tell my teachers that I'm doing something for you today and that I won't be able to attend class?"

"Why?" The headmaster frowned.

"I didn't get much sleep tonight. Or any, actually." Hope yawned.

"Go sleep." Alaric sighed. "I'll excuse your absences."


	27. The Picnic

"Did I miss something?" Hope rubbed her eyes.

After the tribrid woke up, Josie dragged her outside, back to the dock where they spent some time yesterday. There, a picnic was set up on the wooden planks, near the water.

"You slept though dinner, I figured you'd be hungry." Josie shrugged with a small smile.

Hope grinned back at her. "I am a little bit hungry."

"Great!" The siphoner's expression lit up. "Come on sit down, I put the food under preservation charms, but those should wear off soon."

"So, did I miss something while I was sleeping?" Hope asked as she sat down.

"You can say that." Josie muttered as she settled down. "My dad called mom."

"Oh?" Hope brushed her hand against her friend's as she reached for the bowl filled with berries.

"Yeah, so mom thought that your theory made sense," Josie started explaining with a tiny frown on her face. "but she said she'll keep looking into the Merge until it's confirmed."

"Confirmed?" Hope furrowed her brow.

"They decided to call your aunt for advice. She knows a lot about old spells, right?"

"Yeah." Hope nodded.

"So, she's coming to the school soon."

"Wait what?" Hope grinned. "Aunt Freya's visiting?"

"Yeah," Josie smiled at Hope's enthusiasm. She popped open a can of Pepsi and took a sip before saying, "It's not the only news though."

"What else happened?" Hope tilted her head.

"Landon went down to the cells to talk to the Necromancer."

"Oh, I forgot about him."

"The Necromancer?" Josie asked with a small laugh. "Or Landon?"

"Both?" Hope smiled hesitantly. "How long has the Necromancer been in the cells?"

"Ever since you interrupted the ritual." Josie bumped Hope's shoulder with her own. "Did I ever say thank you for that? The idea of any part of me, no matter how dark, being inside that guy, makes my skin crawl."

"You don't have to thank me Jo." Hope scratched the back of her neck, looking slightly flushed. "I know you'd do the same for me."

"No doubt." Josie agreed. "So Landon went to talk to him."

"Oh yeah, how'd that go?"

"Landon pissed him off." The brunette shrugged. "He didn't get much information other that the Necromancer snarling at him that we are lucky that he cut the strings that made him able to control resurrected people before the ritual started."

"Did he?" Hope smiled. "Good, one less thing to worry about."

"And about having less things to worry about, I think dad said something about melting down the golden arrow."

Hope hummed. "Is it actually gold? If it is, do _any_ gold weapons work against Landon? Can we actually melt it if it's not? What if it's invulnerable like the dagger was?"

"You're such a worrywart."

"Guilty." Hope shrugged before reaching for the thermos. "Why is there macaroni and cheese in here?"

"I wanted to show you what good mac and cheese tastes like." Josie gave the tribrid an innocent smile.

"Are you implying that I'm not a good cook?" Hope playfully raised an eyebrow.

"Of course not." Josie gasped in an exaggerated manner. "I'm implying that I'm a better cook, that's all."

Hope snorted before scooping up a spoonful of mac and cheese and shoving it in her mouth.

"My God." She groaned. "You actually are."

Josie's eyes darkened and her grin broadened.

"And don't you forget it."

"I won't if you remind me sometimes." Hope smiled at Josie.

"I'll make sure to do that then."

"My diet will surely thank you for that." Hope smiled at the siphoner.

They ate in silence for a couple minutes, before Josie broke it.

"So, in my subconscious, how did you figure out that I was the huntsman too?"

"I didn't know for sure." Hope shrugged. "But if you were both the pig and the wolf, it would make sure that a part of you is a huntsman too. Unless it was actually Lizzie because of your twin connection, but I didn't think about that at the time."

Josie laughed. "Lizzie would make a kickass huntsman, but I think it would've been too weird to see her in my head when it wasn't really her."

"Yeah I guess." Hope was glad that she got the siphoner to smile. "How'd you convince aunt Freya to help you with the memory spell? I would've thought she'd send you away if she heard it was black magic." She asked a question in return.

"I talked to her about you." Josie smiled.

"Hmm?"

"There were photos of you in her house. Even when she didn't know you, she felt a connection." Josie grinned. "You're a difficult person to forget Hope Mikaelson."

_So are you Josie, so are you._

"I still don't get that, by the way?"

"What?" Hope asked with a small smile.

"How we forgot you."

"Oh." Hope sighed. "Pretty straightforward, that one. I jumped into the pit, it did what it's known for."

"Yeah, but Malivore's powers never worked on you, right?" Josie pressed on. "Judging by that even if it swallowed you, we should've remembered you. Because you're part witch, part werewolf, and part vampire I mean."

"Maybe it was stronger because it had all three keys dumped into it." Hope shrugged. "And I didn't activate my vampire side yet. That could be a factor."

"Sure." Josie decided to drop the topic. "So, do you have any plans for the future?"

"I don't know." Hope shrugged. "What about you? Are you going to run for Miss Mystic Fall this year?"

"Oh, probably not." Josie laughed awkwardly. "Last year was an experience."

Hope frowned, not knowing what the brunette meant by that. "You can totally win."

"Tell you what..." Josie took in a deep breath. "I'll run if you'll be my date."

"Uh," Hope eyes widened, "alright, you've got yourself a deal. If you can handle my abysmal dancing."

"Abysmal." Josie snorted. "You won Miss Mystic Falls last year."

"You're right, I'm probably not too bad." Hope smiled softly at the brunette siphoner. "I look forward to dancing with you then."

"So do I."


	28. Conversations with the Twins

"Admitting mutual crushes, literally diving into each others heads, sleeping in the same bed, now asking each other to be your dates." Lizzie threw her hands up in sheer exasperation. "I don't know what to tell you Hope. Oh, wait, I do. That stuff ain't platonic!"

Hope rolled her eyes. "Thank you for that extremely helpful commentary."

"I don't know what you want me to say at this point!" Lizzie closed her eyes and rubbed the space between them. "I would've thought you, of all people, would be less freaking oblivious!" 

"I'm not being oblivious." The tribrid glared at the blonde. "I'm just being...Cautious."

"There is a time and place for being cautious. This is not it." 

"Then what do I do?" Hope stared at the blonde siphoner, frustrated.

"Take my sister out on a date, and then...Then, don't tell me anything about it because I'll probably have to endure Josie gushing about you and how it went." Lizzie grumbled out. "Now, can we get back to chemistry?"

"You're the one that started to talk about my and and Josie's chemistry!" Hope exhaled, annoyed, but opened the chemistry book anyway.

_This is what I get for agreeing to tutor her._

"And now I'm finishing it." Lizzie declared calmly. "Now what is this crap about single and double replacements?"

"It's fairly straightforward..." Hope put on her best smile and started a short lecture.

In the next couple of weeks Hope settled into a relatively serene routine. On Mondays, she'd have breakfast with Josie before heading to train with Alaric. On Tuesdays, she'd spend it with Lizzie because the brunette siphoner had early classes. On Wednesdays, they both did, so they grabbed refreshments and ate while working together on one project or the other. On Thursdays, Hope's least favorite day of the week, the tribrid didn't get to see Josie (or even Lizzie) because the auburn haired girl's schedule was packed with werewolf classes. Her Fridays mornings were busy with vampire courses (which was frankly ridiculous because she didn't even _activate_ her vampire side yet), but she spent her evenings with the twins watching movies or some trashy reality TV show. And she'd always squeeze in an hour or two of practicing dancing with Josie on the weekends. Considering the fact that the Miss Mystic Falls pageant was still more than a month and a half away, they didn't want to stress about it too much, but they put in the effort just in case.

"It's odd to practice dancing to one song when you know that you'll be dancing to another one, isn't it?" Josie kept her eyes on their hands, trying to not let them touch.

Hope hummed in agreement. "I don't know why the judges would want to switch the music and the venues every year."

"It's not too hard to find a couple songs with the same beat." Josie smiled before glancing at the stairs behind Hope. "Maybe it's a good thing that it's in the Lockwood Mansion this year."

"I heard it's beautiful." Hope agreed with a soft smile.

_Just like you._

"Yeah, but we'd probably be dancing outside. Hope it doesn't rain." Josie joked.

Hope grinned. The beat of the melody changed and Josie put one hand on Hope's shoulder and interlaced their fingers with the other.

"Do you know anyone from Mystic Falls High that might compete?" Josie asked hesitantly.

"I didn't spend too much time there, but I know one person who might want to." Hope blinked as memories of her human friend rushed to the surface. "Maya is pretty outgoing, so this seems to be right up her alley."

"Maya?"

"Deputy Sheriff Mac's daughter."

"I thought she had a son?"

"Yeah, they are twins. Fraternal, obvs." Hope winked at Josie.

_Who even am I right now?_

Josie laughed. "Were they your friends when you went there?"

"Yeah." Hope smiled fondly. "I didn't see too much of them ever since Ethan broke his arm though."

Josie stumbled. "Don't suppose it was here, during the game?"

"Yeah, it was." Hope murmured. "Jo, is something wring? You're looking a little pale."

"I think there's something you should know." Josie whispered before guiding Hope to it down with her on the stairs.

And so Josie told her about her accidental act of cruelty toward the brown haired boy during the football game a couple of weeks ago. Hope listened carefully and without interruptions as Josie poured her heart out and as the siphoner finished, she stood up and tugged Josie into a hug.

"You're not mad?" Josie asked in a small voice into Hope's shoulder.

"Oh, I'm mad, but never at you." Hope assured her. "Clarke is an asshole who deceived you. It's not like you knew what the spell would do when you said it."

"I should've known better than to use unfamiliar spells on people anyway." Josie argued with a frown.

"Maybe." Hope allowed it. "But Clarke freed the team from the shackles of expectations of failure. Or at least that's what it seemed like. I think he counted on the whole team feeling a little drunk on power."

Josie shrugged. "Dad taught us about the responsibility we should have all our lives."

"Maybe he didn't go the right way about it." Hope sighed, realizing that perhaps Josie wasn't ready to accept absolution yet, so she decided to change the subject and follow Lizzie's advice. "Hey, do you want to go to the movies on Thursday?"

"Don't you have classes?" Josie looked up, surprised.

"Not too much of them in the evening." Hope shrugged. "I'll just skip them."

"Woah, looks like I've been a bad influence on you." Josie smirked.

"Please, I've skipped so much class time fighting monsters and recruiting students with your father, skipping one or two classes on how to master transformation efficiently won't hurt me."

"Alright then, see you on Th- tomorrow, actually."

"Yeah, good night Jo."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously contemplating having Maya compete in the pageant. Thoughts?


	29. Thursday Night

Josie and Hope were laughing as they stumbled out of the movie theater. While the movie took the better part of the last two hours, the comedy was exactly what they needed with all the chaos going on in their lives.

"Where do you think you're going?" Josie mimicked one of the main characters in the movie. "You need to land this bird Houghlin! I hope I see you on the ground. I really, really, do. Later!"

Hope cracked up laughing. "Yeah, the skydiving scene was great." She said when she calmed down a bit.

"Would you ever want to go skydiving?" Josie was curious.

"If I ever have the time to... Why not?" Hope chuckled. "Compared to some of the things we've faced, jumping with a parachute doesn't seem that bad."

"I don't know." Josie shook her head. "What if you can't concentrate on a spell in the air?"

"Why would you need a spell when you're skydiving?" Hope fought to hide a grin from her companion.

"I dunno! What if a monster gets on a plane?" The siphoner gestured wildly with her hands as they walked back toward the school.

"That's pretty unlikely." Hope bumped Josie's shoulder with her own. "Besides, I'm sure you can do a fire spell in your sleep, so we'd be safe anyway."

Josie blushed. "I'm not that good at them."

"Please." Hope scoffed in amusement. "It's like, a running joke at the school."

"What?"

"Yeah, you can hear people joke about your fire affinity." Hope smiled in a non-malicious way. "One person would say 'where there is smoke, there is fire'. And another person would add 'and Josie. Or Landon.' "

"Why Landon?" Josie raised an eyebrow, not a bit offended.

"If you ask Lizzie, it's because of his flaming hot chicken wings." Hope answered her with a straight face.

"What?" Josie snorted.

"Yeah. Chicken wings 'cause he can't quite fly for a long period of time yet." Hope shrugged. "And flaming 'cause-"

"Yeah, yeah I get it now." Josie smiled.

They walked for a few minutes in silence, holding hands, before they arrived at the gates of the Salvatore Boarding School for the Young & Gifted. It wasn't dark yet, and the gates weren't locked, so the girls had no trouble going in.

Hope walked the brunette siphoner to the twins' room. This time, the doorknob was bare of any clothing accessories.

"Good night Jos." Hope murmured as she reached to hug her friend.

"Night Hope." Josie replied as she pulled back from the hug.

Then, she decided to throw caution to the wind and leaned over to kiss the tribrid on the corner of her mouth. "Sweet dreams." The brunette whispered before disappearing behind the door.

Hope stood still for a moment before blinking and beaming at the now closed door. "I'm sure they will be." She mumbled before heading for her room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this one's short and sweet. Sorry, I'm not that good at writing human interaction, lol.


	30. Freya's Arrival

"Well, that looks mind numbingly boring." A familiar voice distracted Hope from her latest homework assignment.

The tribrid's shot up form her seat at her desk. "Aunt Freya!" She launched herself at her relative with an inhuman swiftness. Even though she saw the eldest Mikaelson when everybody's memories returned, she still missed her as weeks went on without much more interaction than the occasional Skype call.

"It's good to see you too Hope." The witch laughed, hugging her niece. "Everything alright with you?"

"Yes!" the tribrid grinned. "What about you? Are you here alone? Are you going to be staying at the school?"

"No." Freya shook her head. "I'm doing great, I'm here with Keelin, Vincent, and Nik. We're going to be staying at the Mikaelson Mansion since the school is at near full housing capacity and your other aunt recommended it."

"Awesome." Hope smiled. "How is aunt Rebekah?"

"Still in New York with Marcel, though they should be returning to New Orleans soon. You wanna go visit your cousin? Nik missed you."

Hope groaned. "I really do, but I need to finish the essay on mathematics behind the runes for specific spells. It's due tomorrow."

"That's alright." Freya hugged her niece again before heading for the door. "Visit when you have time, if you want to. I know Keelin would be delighted to see you."

"Sure." The tribrid nodded and the firstborn Mikaelson left.

Hope fought the urge to groan and slowly trudged over to her desk, sat down and looked over the half-written piece of writing.

_This is going to be a long night._

* * *

Freya looked over the incantation for the Merge as soon as possible after she and her companions settled in. Lizzie wrote it down for her when she found out that the legendary Freya Mikaelson was helping them with the Merge.

"I can't tell you much about it at first glance." She frowned. "But Hope is right, this is definitely not a curse."

"And the twins aren't going to be forced to merge when they are twenty two?" Dr. Saltzman prodded.

"I seriously doubt it." Freya shook her head. "Though, as far as I can tell, it focuses on blood a lot. Almost too much. It probably won't even work for just anybody, just a single bloodline."

"Huh." Alaric scowled. "I'm going to go call Caroline about this."

Freya waved him away, already jotting down notes in Latin.

* * *

"Hey Jo, is everything okay?" Lizzie paused at the doorway of their room, staring at Josie, who was laying in her bed, staring at the ceiling.

"Yeah, I'm just thinking Liz." The brunette sat up against the headboard and focused on her sister. "About the Merge."

"What about it?" Lizzie walked over and sat next to her.

"I found about it almost a year ago now. And wouldn't it be cool if Mrs. Mikaelson found out that it wasn't a curse before the pageant? Then, if with all the stuff we went through, we would come full circle."

"Huh." The blonde reached over and pulled her twin into a half hug. "Yeah, it would be."

"All the worrying, it would just be... Over." Josie smiled.

"That sounds great." Her sister agreed. "Then, all you would need to worry about is a clueless tribrid."

"Lizzie!" Josie playfully shoved her before dissolving into laughter at her twin's undignified expression.

* * *

_On the other side of the world_

A blonde vampire collapsed in a chair as emotions overwhelmed her, the book in front of her long forgotten. She's just hung up on a call with the father of her children.

"Everything alright Mrs. Salvatore Forbes?" Her associate asked from behind her.

"Yes." Caroline turned to look at the brunette witch. "We're going home. We're going back to the Salvatore School."


	31. The Rehearsal

"It's time to rehearse the dance ladies!" Dana's mother called from her seat at the patio table outside the Lockwood Mansion. She was still a judge for the pageant, as she was last year. Hope couldn't remember if the other two were judges last year too, or if they were new, but it didn't matter too much. 

Lizzie still refused to compete in the pageant with a disadvantage, so Josie was one of the few people that would be representing the Salvatore School tomorrow. Jade would be the other. Turns out the vampire needed a distraction, like Hope did last year, and a pageant felt appropriate. Josie would be going with Hope as her date while Jade asked her friend Wendy to be her escort.

And just like the Salvatore School, the Mystic Falls High School had two contestants. One of them was the same puffy haired girl that competed last year, the one that both Hope and Josie bumped into (Hope when dancing with Landon, Josie when she fell down the stairs). That girl had Ethan Machado on her arm today. The other girl representing Mystic Falls High was Ethan's sister, Maya. The cheerleader's competitive nature made sure that she was serious about competing and dead set on winning. Her date, one of the football players that Hope got along with when she went to Mystic Falls High, didn't seem to share her determination.

"Come on Hope." Josie smiled, gesturing to the dance floor with her head.

Hope nodded and followed the siphoner outside.

"Honor your partner." One of the judges ordered.

The tribrid and the siphoner bowed to each other before bringing up their right hands. They started walking in a circle without their hands touching.

"Left hand." Another judge said.

The girls spun around and walked a circle in a different direction before Dana's mother said, "Both hands."

They changed their position once again and continued dancing to the music.

"That's not so bad, is it?" Josie murmured.

Hope snorted. "Maybe not now, after all that practice. I was so lost last year."

"I'm sure you weren't that bad." Josie smiled softly.

Hope shook her head. "Hey, did you talk to your mom?"

"Yeah, she called maybe a hour ago from the airport. She should be here soon." Josie's smile grew.

"That's great."

Josie hummed in agreement. "Hope, are you going to wear that dress from last year?" She asked with concern.

"Ah, probably not." The tribrid sighed. "It's great, but it has so many memories attached to it. Plus it would draw attention; would be good for a contestant, but probably not that great for a date. Do you want it? Lizzie thought it would boost anyone's chances at winning."

"Nah, that's not why I asked." Josie put on hand on Hope's shoulder and intertwined their fingers with the other. "Last time the pageant was pretty emotional for you. I'm sorry I dropped that bomb with you in the room. My timing could use some work."

"It's not your fault." Hope gently spun her around. "It's not anybody's fault."

"Maybe not, but I made you cry, didn't I?" Josie frowned.

Hope sighed. "There was a lot going on that night. The dress... It was unexpected, but not necessarily bad. I'm glad I found out about its history, even if the timing could've been better."

Josie sighed. "You're too good for this world." They bowed to each other.

"Wonderful, wonderful." Dana's mother addressed the contestants. "Great job girls." She beamed at Josie, Hope and Maya, and nodded at Jade, while pointedly ignoring Maya's date, Ethan and Wendy who all seemed to have gotten in an argument.

"Now, for the Q&A part." One of the other judges smiled.

"I'll see you later?" Hope asked Josie, as contestants' dates didn't need to be there for this part.

"Absolutely." The siphoner hugged the tribrid before following the judges and other contestants out of the room.


	32. The Miss Mystic Falls Dance

"Ms. Sasha Stoteraux..." Mrs. Lilien announced and Hope blinked in confusion. Wasn't that the name of Dana's best friend? How did she not recognize the girl yesterday, or at last year's competition? "Escorted by Ethan Machado."

The pair slowly descended down the steps and walked outside.

"Ms. Jade Belmonde..." Dana's mother furrowed her brows while reading the index card. "Escorted by Wendy Karnstein."

Josie snorted. She fiddled with her red dress a little bit before glancing at Hope.

"What?" Hope asked with a small smile.

"Jade mentioned earlier using a different name for the competition, so that the records won't show anything later on." Josie murmured. "I didn't expect Wendy to go along and change her name too. They are having way too much fun with that."

Hope tilted her head slightly to the side.

"I'll explain later." Josie smiled softly at her date.

"Cool."

"Ms. Josette Saltzman..." The light shining on the blinded them for a second. "Escorted by Hope Mikaelson."

They started to go down the stairs with smiles in their face. Hope was glad that she decided to forego with the long blue dress and chose a simple black one that didn't hinder her movement as she glided down the stairs.

"You got this." Hope whispered.

Josie's smile widened.

"Ms. Maya Machado..." Mrs. Lilien's voice boomed behind them. "Escorted by Bartholomew Fell Junior."

Hope stood in front of the brunette siphoner, just as the other escorts stood in front of their dates.

The music started as soon as soon as Maya and her date lined up with everyone else. The melody wasn't familiar to either Hope nor Josie, but that didn't stop them from dancing. And the hours of constant practice paid off. They danced in sync, movements mirroring each other's perfectly. If Josie was even a little bit nervous, she didn't show it. In fact, she looked more relaxed that she did in a long time.

"How are you so good at this?" Hope asked as she twirled her date.

"You're just as good. It's the practice." Josie smiled at her.

Hope shook her head with a fond smile. "Dancing, singing, playing the ukulele, speaking Japanese. Is there anything you can't do?"

"I can't cook." Josie tried.

"Lies." Hope murmured softly.

"I can't play any other instruments that the ukulele." Josie pouted. "I tried to learn how to play piano, but I couldn't do it."

"Same." Hope shrugged.

"I sense a story." Josie tilted her head with a tiny smirk.

"My uncle Elijah tried to teach me when I was younger." Hope winced. "Didn't end too well."

"Huh." Josie pulled Hope closer to her as the melody began to fade.

The dance ended.

"That was wonderful darlings!" Dana's mother declared before glancing at the other judges. "Now, without further ado, it is my honor to announce this year's Miss Mystic Falls. Give it up for the Salvatore's School Miss Josette Saltzman."

Cheers and applause erupted from all around them. Josie laughed as she hugged the tribrid again.

"Sweetheart!" Suddenly Caroline was near the brunette and congratulating her.

Hope took a couple steps back as all of Josie's friends decided to do a group hug, but she was pulled right back into it. Josie managed to free herself after a minute or two.

"Congrats. I knew you had it in you Jojo." Josie froze at the familiar voice and slowly turned around.

Penelope Park was smiling at her.


	33. Surprise!

"I'm gonna go... Somewhere." Hope awkwardly took a small step away from both Penelope and Josie. "Find Maya and Ethan and catch up."

Josie hand reached for the tribrid's but Hope's fingers slipped through hers. The siphoner silently watched her retreat into the mansion before turning to face her ex.

"What are you doing here Penelope?"

"Whatever do you mean by that Jojo?" Penelope raised an eyebrow. "I heard that the Merge isn't bound to happen anymore, so I hopped on the first plane back to the States."

"Why?" Josie closed her eyes for a second. "And how did you even hear that?"

Penelope took a step towards her and Josie took a step back. Penelope frowned but didn't try to move closer again.

"I was with your mom when Dr. Saltzman called her." The witch admitted.

"I thought you were in Belgium?" Josie frowned.

"Belgium was just an excuse Jojo." Her ex clarified. "So that I could help Mrs. Salvatore Forbes look for a solution."

"A lie, you mean." The siphoner shook her head.

Penelope shrugged. "I love you Jo. I couldn't bear the thought of you dying. Or even killing Lizzie, so I convinced your mom to let me go to her and help out."

"Convinced?" Josie sighed. "Mom was in on this?"

Penelope winced. "You know I have blackmail on pretty much everyone. It wasn't to hard to persuade her to let me tag along."

"Jeez." The siphoner shook her head in revulsion. "What do you want from me now?"

"Isn't it obvious Jojo?" Penelope looked at her earnestly. "I want you."

Josie started at her incredulously.

"What?" She giggled, hysteria seeping into her voice. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Why?" Her ex smiled hesitantly. "What's so hard to believe about that?"

"You've been gone for a year Penelope!" If Josie's voice rose any higher, she'd be yelling. "Why would you think that I was still pining over you?"

"Because..." The witch sighed. "A year isn't really that much in the grand scheme of things."

Josie sighed.

"I'm sorry Penny." She closed her eyes, not willing to look into Penelope's. "But I wasn't in love with you for a long time. Perhaps not even before you left."

"What?" Penelope whispered.

"You said you loved me before you left. And I couldn't bring myself to say it back. I knew that I could convince you to stay if I really tried, but I chose to let you go." A single tear slid down the siphoner's cheek. She wiped it away. "Because at that point I was starting to get over you. I wasn't in love, but I was still hung up on you. So I let you go. And I got completely over you since then."

"Josie..." Penelope looked heartbroken. Completely and utterly devastated.

"I'm sorry Pen." The siphoner sighed. "But in the words of Taylor Swift: we are never ever getting back together."

Penelope winced. "The least you could do is not throwing trashy pop songs in my face after breaking my heart."

"Sorry Pen." Josie snorted before giving her ex a quick hug. 

"Are you at least happy now?" Penelope asked when she pulled back. "You seemed to be, before I showed up."

"I am." The siphoner admitted, smiling when she thought of Hope, Lizzie and all of their friends.

"Good." Penelope nodded firmly. "That's all I ever wanted for you Jojo."

"I know." Josie smiled sadly.

"Good." Penelope inclined her head before noticing some of the Salvatore School faculty walking around. "I think I'm going to re-enroll back into the school."

"Okay." The siphoner smiled gently. "It wasn't the same without you there."

Penelope smirked.

* * *

_Meanwhile, a different conversation was taking place inside the mansion_

Hope found Maya like she planned, but Ethan didn't seem to be around.

"You alright?" She asked when she noticed the human sitting on one of the couches, staring blankly at the ceiling.

Maya snapped out of her stupor. She smiled when she saw who interrupted her thoughts.

"Fine, just fine." The human grinned wider. "Since when were you a Mikaelson? I thought you said your last name was Marshall?"

"Um." Hope scratched the back of her neck awkwardly, not wanting to lie. "I decided to go by my father's last name a couple of weeks ago. Marshall was my mother's last name. I lived with it for along time."

"Okay." Maya accepted the explanation easily. "You'll never guess what just happened."

Hope's eyebrow rose up. "I won't?"

Maya shook her head. "This lady approached Ethan and I after your girlfriend was declared winner. She said that she and her company was scouting us for a while now. After they saw Ethan's arm break, the Mikraux Corp thought it was stupid that their opposition decided to withdraw his scholarship due to a single injury that would probably heal soon anyways. So they decided to sponsor Ethan instead."

"What?" Hope hoped that her acting skills were alright.

"Yeah, he got a full ride to the college of his dreams." Maya laughed in exultation. "And they made me an offer too."

"What kind of offer?"

"Apparently they knew that I'm an outgoing person because I do a lot. Cheerleading, football, volunteering, keeping up good grades..." Maya shook her head and started fidlling with her runner-up sash. "They said that if I took a part time job with them while I was in college, they'd pay for my higher education. Like college _and_ medical school."

"That sounds...Great." Hope smiled.

"It is!" The human laughed. "I cannot believe this is happening right now. Ethan went to call mom, and I've been sitting here without moving for like five minutes before you found me."

Hope snorted. "If anyone deserves this, it's you and Ethan."

She was glad that her aunt's company was so fruitful. Freya started it after she and Keelin faced some discrimination when they were out with Nik. They knew that they'd easily be able to pay for Nik's education thanks to Keelin's job and the Mikaelson funds, but others might not be so fortunate. They started to offer help to all sorts of groups of people that were discriminated against, including but not limited to the LGBTQ community and supernaturals because Freya hired people she knew and trusted who knew about the supernatural world. They offered funds to support humans that were unknowingly hexed by witches or those who were ripped away from their lives because a random vampire decided to compel them. They helped thousands, which was why Hope knew they'd be qualified to help the Machado twins. She asked her aunt about it when she went to visit the Mikaelson Mansion earlier today. Hope didn't expect results so quickly, but she definitely wasn't complaining.

"Thanks Hope." Maya smiled at her. "You're the best."


	34. The Walk

_There is no good reason to hurt someone you care about, and yet I continue to do so. I burn down bridges as soon as I establish them. Sometimes even before that. I started the chain of events that led to my mother's death. I indirectly caused my father's and uncle Elijah's deaths. I rejected Lizzie's offers of friendship for years. I didn't listen to MG when he warned me against going into the Necromancer's mind and pretty much traumatized him. I lied to Landon about the person he wanted to find his entire life. I put Dr. Saltzman through unneeded sorrow when I said goodbye before everybody forgot about me. I left Maya and Ethan at MFH without a second thought when everybody remembered me._

_And yet, there is a single person that I can't bring myself to hurt, at least not by choice._

_I couldn't rat her out when we did black magic together to track down Landon._

_I didn't even think of retaliating when she admitted to burning down my room._

_Hell, I tried to take a bullet for her so that she wouldn't be harmed._

_I was ready to leave Mystic Falls for her. I stayed for her._

_I don't remember when Josie became this important to me. Was it when we were fourteen? My first infatuation. Perhaps she always was._

"Whatcha thinking about?" The subject of her thoughts asked Hope from her bed. Hope has been silently looking out of the window for a while now, while Lizzie was working on something at the desk.

"Nothing important." Hope shrugged before turning and walking towards Josie. The brunette shuffled over to make some space for her in the bed. Hope gingerly sat down against the headboard.

"Is everything alright?" Josie inquired with a small frown. Sometimes she was too perceptive.

"Peachy." Hope felt her lips involuntarily twitch into a smile.

Lizzie rolled her eyes after looking up from her project - some sort of molecule made from grapes and blueberries. "Get a room, will you?"

"Don't pay attention to us, do your work." Josie sighed. "We aren't going to Hope's room 'cause Hope has a roommate again. Guess who is it?"

"Satan?" Lizzie surmised.

"Penelope," Hope confirmed with a sigh. Turns out the brunette witch was almost as bad a roommate as Alyssa Chang was. And while Penelope didn't have any trouble understanding Hope's need for personal space, she had her fair share of quirks.

Only Hope wasn't sure if it was those quirks that annoyed her or the fact that Penelope was Josie's ex.

"Ugh." Lizzie sympathized with her situation before turning back around to work on her creation.

Josie smiled before getting up and tugging Hope's arm to get her to do the same.

"Come on, let's go for a walk." She whispered, not wanting to disturb her twin.

Hope nodded. It wasn't the worst idea. It was a quiet Sunday, with good weather outside, and it wasn't like she had anything else she had to do now that the Miss Mystic Falls pageant was over. Practicing dancing with Josie was one of the few things that she looked forward to during the week.

They started to walk along the path near the woods, not entering them but just walking along the edge of the forest hand in hand.

"Seriously though, is everything okay Hope?" Josie asked a few minutes into their trek.

Hope smiled again. Being in Josie's presence tended to make her do that.

"Everything is great." Hope squeezed her hand gently. "Guess I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Josie hummed. "Why?"

"Doesn't it always?" Hope answered a question with a question. 

Josie shrugged. "Guess it would be pretty boring if it never did. Can you imagine living in a world where everything is just good? You can't truly appreciate the good without the bad."

"Sure you can." Hope was nothing if not stubborn. "I can appreciate this moment even when this week has been great."

"Okay, sure but think of the big picture." Josie pouted. "If everything and everyone was good then you probably would still date Roman because he wouldn't be such a bad guy. And this moment never would've happened."

Hope frowned. "We could've still broken up. Not all breakups are because of bad decisions."

Josie's eyebrow shot up. Hope's shoulders sagged.

"Fine. You win."

Josie smirked. "And?"

"And maybe waiting for the other shoe to drop instead of appreciating the present is foolish." Hope playfully rolled her eyes.

Josie's eyes shone with mischief as she stopped walking. Hopes stopped too, looking slightly perplexed.

"Then let's appreciate the moment." She whispered and tugged the tribrid to her before kissing her.

Hope fought the urge to smile as she pulled her crush even closer to her.

_It doesn't matter. When Josie became so important to me, that is. What matters is the fact that she is._


	35. Graduation Party

_A year and five months later_

It was finally time. The twins, MG and many others were graduating from the Salvatore School for the Young & Gifted.

Hope and Penelope had to stay behind for another year because as it turns out, disappearing from the face of the Earth for six months and quitting school for a year doesn't exactly do your credits any favors. Jade had the same problem, but she had nothing but time to read up in the prison world, so she was set to graduate at the same time as the tribrid and Penelope.

But at least the girls would have half of their friends to keep them company. Landon, Rafael, and Kaleb were technically enrolled as freshmen when the whole Malivore mess began, so they still had at least two years left at the school.

"Let's go, hurry up," Lizzie yelled as she jogged towards the car. Hope and Raf lagged behind her.

"We're coming, we're coming." Hope huffed.

"Well, go faster. Jo and MG are already waiting for us at the Mystic Grill." Lizzie opened the door of her dad's old car. Hope smiled as she hopped in the back seat as Rafael claimed shotgun.

They got there in record time. Lizzie might've broken a couple speeding laws, but at least they got to the party on time. Alaric allowed his daughters to throw a graduation bash as long as they were responsible with alcohol. Lizzie promised that they would be with her fingers crossed behind her back.

The part was in full swing when they arrived. Half of the room erupted into cheers just as they entered it.

Hope immediately noticed the reason why and headed towards it.

"Hey, you're here already!" Her girlfriend grinned as she sunk the eight ball into one of the pockets of the pool table. MG groaned from the other side of it.

Josie threw her arms up in celebration before throwing them around Hope and tugging the tribrid into a kiss.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." Hope laughed when they separated for air.

The brunette siphoner smiled and pulled Hope toward the booth where her sister and Kaleb were already seated. MG joined them a couple of seconds later with a tray of shots in his hands. Everybody except Hope reached for one.

"You guys enjoy the party, you deserve it. I'll be the designated driver tonight." She explained.

"Alright! Cheers!" Lizzie beamed, took a shot in each hand and gulped them down.

Kaleb shrugged and did the same before the blonde siphoner tugged him onto the dancefloor, saying something about messing with the jukebox later.

"Thanks, babe." Josie pecked Hope on the cheek before reaching for a shot glass. She nurtured it for a while. Hope looked at her in curiosity.

"What are you thinking 'bout Jos?"

"The future." The siphoner shrugged unsurely.

"Oh yeah?" Hope smiled softly. "What are your plans? Still want to go to that university in California?"

"I was thinking I'd take a gap year," Josie admitted before swigging her shot. "Don't really want to be too far away from here. From you."

Hope sighed. "While I'd love nothing more than having you around all of the time, you've got your future to think about Jo."

"I am thinking about it." Josie pouted. "You said you wanted to go there too, didn't you? For their art program. If I take a job here for a year I can save up and paying off student loans would be a lot easier."

Hope smiled. "If that's what you want, who am I to stop you?"

Josie grinned back at her before taking the tribrid by the hand and following her twin onto the dancefloor.

They spent hours dancing and goofing off. While it was nothing like the Miss Mystic Falls pageant sort of dancing or the Saltzman parties in the woods, none of them were bad dancers and they had fun, and that's all that mattered. 

By the end of the night Kaleb broke the record for darts, Landon picked Rafael up after the boy passed out, and MG sang seven different karaoke songs.

"Well, this was fun." Lizzie murmured as she stumbled out of the bar. Her vampire boyfriend followed her.

MG snorted as he helped her get in the back of Dr. Saltzman's car before getting in himself.

Hope got in the driver's seat while Josie decided to ride shotgun.

"Hopey, d'you think the gates are open?" The brunette siphoner whispered. "We can ram em or explode them if they aren't."

"Or..." Hope smiled as she carefully drove the car out of the parking lot. "We can call your dad."

"That sounds like a terrible idea." The twins said at the same time.

MG laughed. "Nah, Dr. Saltzman is chill. Never punished me for all the crap I pulled."

"That's because you aren't his daughter." Lizzie scowled before blinking. "I mean his kid."

Hope fought the urge to grin. Suddenly, she heard an odd noise coming from behind the car. It sounded like a roar, but too high-pitched to make it that.

"Am I the only one who's hearing a that?" The tribrid asked.

"Yep." Josie closed her eyes as she started to drift off. Lizzie and MG didn't answer.

Hope frowned and looked in the mirror on the side of the car. She was blinded by bright light as she forced her attention back to the road. It was then the car crashed into something. Something big; another car probably hit them.

The world went black for a second. Hope groaned in pain when she came to.

"Josie?" She fought the urge to freak out when she saw her girlfriend laying motionless on the road a few feet away from her.

She crawled towards the siphoner using all the strength she had left.

"C'mon." She used her already mangled arm to try to get her blood into her girlfriend's system.

Her eyelids drooped, but she resisted the urge to fall asleep then and there.

"Lizzie? MG?" She called, desperately hoping that her friends weren't dead.

"I got her." Her vampire friend rasped out from somewhere behind her.

Hope let out a sigh of relief before her world flickered. She let her body fall on the road, trying not to move too much as to not aggravate her injuries. Then she heard footsteps. She opened her eyes just enough to see an odd-looking creature with big purple irises examining her. The tribrid didn't move because she knew that she was in no condition to fight. The creature huffed in satisfaction before turning and heading towards the Salvatore school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I'm evil. I thought, should I give hosie a peaceful life? But then... What would happen if Hope died of old age? Would she turn into some sort of granny tribrid? Didn't want think about it, so this chapter came to be.


	36. Waking Up

"Hope."

The tribrid was lost in the darkness. It was not unlike Malivore, however, she felt warmer than she ever did in the thrice-cursed tar pit.

"Hope, wake up."

But the goo pit was silent. Only monsters, Clarke and herself could make noises that soon faded into oblivion.

"Please, open your eyes, Hope," The speaker's voice cracked and Hope started.

One of her fingers twitched. Her eyelashes were next.

"Hope?" The voice was familiar and hesitant.

The auburn-haired girl opened her eyes. She turned her head slightly to access the situation. She was in one of the cells.

"You're awake." The owner of the voice that woke her up smiled.

"Josie." She croaked. Hope couldn't move too much without her muscles practically screaming in protest.

_What is Josie doing in that cell? Again._

The next thing Hope noticed was that they weren't alone. While Josie was in the cell once held her, forever ago, and Hope was in another, a monster occupied the third cell. The same monster that the tribrid saw after the crash. Hope hurriedly attempted to get up. She regretted it instantly.

"Hope, are you okay?" Josie paced the length of her cell, watching the tribrid struggle.

Hope's voice was quiet after biting back a scream of pain. "I don't know." She admitted with a frown. "Everything aches."

Josie frowned. "That would be your body trying to get you to drink blood to finish your transition. And the injuries, a few of which haven't healed yet."

"Transition?" The auburn-haired girl winced.

"Yes." Josie gave her a hesitant smile. "I woke up for a couple of minutes after we were hit, a bit after you fed me your blood. I, uh, made my way to Lizzie, and I gave her the watch."

"The watch?"

"You know, the one you gave me for my birthday last year, the one with healing properties?"

Hope hummed in recognition.

"MG was freaking out because Lizzie was nonresponsive. It seemed like her injuries were way more severe than mine were, so I put it on her. If it helped even a little bit, I wanted her to have it. She's very, uh, against the idea of becoming a vampire."

"Yeah, I know." Hope nodded.

"Are you mad?"

"Why would I be mad?" Hope raised an eyebrow.

"I gave your gift away." Josie shrugged. "And possibly died because of that?"

Hope felt her blood run cold. "What?" She choked out.

"MG was fine. Lizzie survived. I think you overpowered the spell that was meant to heal only minor injuries, and it helped with major ones too. But you're going to be a full tribrid now if you drink blood and I'm a heretic."

Hope tried to not let her panic show in her voice. "You're a heretic." She said softly. "You already completed the transition?"

"Yes." Josie stopped pacing and turned to look at Hope. "My dad was here earlier. He gave me a blood bag."

"Oh."

Josie recognized the look on her girlfriend's face. "Stop blaming yourself. Now. It's not your fault."

"Isn't it?" Hope laid back at the bed and stared a the ceiling. "I was driving."

"Yes." Josie agreed easily. "Were you drunk?"

"What?" Hope turned to look at her girlfriend. "You know I wasn't."

"You weren't." Josie agreed with her again. "You were driving responsibly and a monster," she gestured to the cell next to her, "caused a car crash."

"What is it anyway?" Hope's eyes were gold and her voice was a pitch lower than before.

"As far as dad can tell, some sort of karma monster." Josie rolled her eyes.

"Karma?"

"Apparently, when it got to the school, Pedro was the first one to see it." Josie smiled as she noticed how concerned Hope was getting. "All it did was give him a giant bag of M&Ms."

"Huh?" Hope scowl was replaced with a confused frown. "Where did it even get M&Ms from?"

"Yeah, that was Pedro's reaction too. Nobody knows. So Pedro thanked the monster, then ran and got some help." Josie shook her head. "He got Penelope."

"And?"

"And when she got to the gate, according to Pedro, it just stopped moving and stared at her." Josie snorted. "Like it didn't know what to do with her."

"Makes sense." Nobody could pin a single label on Penelope Park.

_Evil, good, it's all mixed up when it comes to her._

"Yeah, so she tied it up and got it to my dad. He made sure it got here." The siphoner, no, heretic now, gestured to the cell.

"Karma." Hope frowned. "Does that mean we deserved to die in a car crash of all things?"

"Don't be so dramatic Hopey." Josie rolled her eyes fondly. "We're not dead, we just... Changed."

Hope closed her eyes and remembered the monster's contentment when their eyes met.

_Was it satisfied that we crashed or that we survived?  
_

And how the hell could they deal with a karma monster? As far as she knew those didn't even exist. Then again, the same could be said for a lot of things that crawled out of Malivore.


	37. Destroying Malivore

Activating her vampire side didn't change too many things for Hope. Sure, her wolf got aggressive more easily due to her (temporarily) volatile emotions, she'd be able to learn compulsion now, her hearing and speed improved (not by much, due to her werewolf side), and she had to drink blood to survive, but on some level, the tribrid was prepared for that.

Supernaturals seemed to be more vulnerable to death than normal humans after all.

Hope always knew that she would activate her vampire side one day. It wasn't pleasant to think about it, but with the amount of chaos in her life, it was unreasonable to think that she would miraculously escape harm's way.

Nobody was invincible.

She just didn't think her death would happen quite so soon. She didn't think Josie would be with her when it happened.

_And a car crash of all things. My life is nothing if not ironic. To die of one of the most mundane, human accidents._

The metal taste of blood did nothing to calm her agitation.

"Why now?" Hope threw the empty blood bag into the trash bin. "It's been calm for over a year. What made the monster appear?"

Dr. Saltzman scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Landon made a deal with the Necromancer yesterday."

_The fourth cell was empty._

Hope closed her eyes. "What did he want?" She opened her eyes and scowled at the floor. "The Necromancer I mean."

"Freedom for cooperation with Malivore's destruction."

Josie put her hand on Hope's shoulder. The burning feeling in the tribrid's chest waned.

"They attempted an experiment in the evening." Alaric continued with a tired sigh. "Three students: a witch, a vampire, and a werewolf donated a pint of blood each. All of it was dumped into the pit simultaneously."

"And?" Hope frowned.

"And it hurt it. You could tell. The tar or whatever the hell it is, it bubbled up. And later when we measured it, the diameter of the pit was a bit smaller. Maybe the new monster is retaliation." Dr. Saltzman stared at Hope in contemplation. "Landon thinks if we added a pint of your blood if we did it again, it would kill it."

"Since when is Landon the expert on Malivore?" Josie's grip on her tightened. Hope fought the urge to smile at her girlfriend's protectiveness.

Alaric furrowed his brows. "Since it's his father?" He didn't seem too sure of the answer.

"It can't be that easy. Can it?" Hope blinked as she processed what Dr. Saltzman said.

"The Necromancer said that the blood of a witch, a werewolf, and a vampire would incapacitate it while Hope's blood destroyed it."

"That doesn't make any sense." Hope sighed.

"You can't know it won't work if you don't try it." Lizzie piped up. The blonde was lying on the couch while her sister and Hope were talking with her dad at his desk.

Hope rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever. It's not like I don't donate blood for the school anyway."

"Thank you, Hope." Alaric nodded. "Everybody appreciates it."

Hope held out her wrist.

* * *

_An hour and twenty minutes later_

"Everyone ready?" Hope asked as she unplugged the seal on the top of the blood bag in her hands. She and the students that would participate in the ritual gathered in the crypt. They already dumped the karma monster back into the pit.

"Yes," Penelope and Jade had their bags open too.

Jed just grinned at her and held up his open blood bag.

"Be careful guys." Dr. Saltzman called out from his spot near the door. The twins weren't allowed to enter the room until whatever happened... Happened.

"Three..." Hope held out her hand over the kiddie pool with the black goo.

"Two..." Jed, Jade, and Penelope started counting down with her.

"One." The tribrid squeezed the bag. Her friends did the same. The blood squirted out of the four bags in dark red strings.

The pit made a hissing noise when it came in contact with it. The kiddie pool started shaking but none of the students moved.

Hope smiled in vindictive glee as the last of the blood trickled out of her bag.

"Is it over?" Dr. Saltzman asked.

Penelope started to say something, but then with a loud bang, all four students were flung back.

Hope and Jed were the first to get up.

Jade groaned and followed suit.

Penelope didn't move, so Hope listened for her pulse. With her vampire side activated she didn't even have to move closer to the witch, she heard it from across the room. It was there and still going strong.

"Hope," Jed called staring into the kiddie pool. "Dr. Saltzman."

The tribrid glanced down.

"It's over," She laughed. The pool was empty. Torn up at the bottom, but empty.

Josie sped into the room. "Is it really?" She threw her arms around her girlfriend and started laughing with her.

"It is," Lizzie popped up too, snapping a picture of the former container of Malivore, no doubt sending it to all her supernatural friends.

"Yes," Dr. Saltzman pumped his fist before engulfing his daughters in a giant bear hug.

As soon as she escaped his grasp, Josie went back to Hope, while Lizzie was approached by Jade.

The two blondes walked off talking about something.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Josie stared after them with a perplexed look on her face. The heretic wasn't used to her super hearing yet, so she wasn't able to focus it on something for long periods of time before something distracted her.

Hope had no such problems because she was used to werewolf hearing.

"Jade is asking Lizzie about her J.A.C.K. speech that she'll give next meeting." She smiled at her girl.

J.A.C.K. was one of the newest clubs at the school. The Josie Appreciation Club for Kids was popular due to Josie's kind nature. Its membership was on par with MG's Fortnite club. Penelope formed it when she got back from wherever she was when she was researching the Merge. Lizzie, Raf, and Landon were her first recruits. Jade joined later. Hope herself joined it, but they kicked her out because she kept ditching club meetings to spend time with her girlfriend.

"Oh," The corners of Josie's mouth twitched up. "Want to go get ice cream to celebrate?"

"Absolutely."


	38. Epilogue

Life went on.

Years went by, people grew up and grew old. At least, some of them did.

Hope and Josie remained youthful decades after their time at the Salvatore School. After they were turned, Josie stayed at the school for another year, taking vampire classes and volunteering under Mr. Kiang to get used to the smell and temptations of blood. Hope was with her almost every step of the way, but the tribrid didn't do half as much volunteering as her girlfriend due to her dislike of the school nurse and her busy schedule. They left the school together, the day after Hope graduated, for a small college in the sunny state of California. They had fun at college and earned their degrees and settled for a couple of years, before moving to a nearby state. That pattern continued for a couple of decades for a single reason.

MG and Lizzie went to Arizona, so the twins met often. After three and a half years of dating, Lizzie proposed. MG accepted gleefully. Later, he asked his fiancee's aunt Bonnie to enchant his ring so that it would allow him to age along with the love of his life. The ring didn't turn him human, so he still couldn't have biological kids, it just aged his body when it should've been frozen forever in a youthful state. Mizzie eventually adopted a nine-year-old girl, after fostering her for five months. Leah Greasley was human, but she couldn't love her parents more than she did.

Kaleb ended up running a prestigious club for the supernatural. It was especially popular with vampires because one of Kaleb's witch friends created a spell that produced artificial blood. While it didn't sate vampires, it stilled their thirst. 

Landon somehow ended up working with Roman on recruiting students for the Salvatore school.

Jed became a father of triplets after he reconnected with Alyssa Chang following a random meeting in Italy. Alice, Allison, and Alexis had their dad wrapped around their little fingers before they could even crawl.

In an unexpected twist of events, Penelope and Jade wound up together. They started dating in the last month of their time at the Salvatore school and their relationship continued when they both got accepted into universities that were less than an hour away from each other.

After two more decades of running the school, Dr. Saltzman retired. Pedro took over his role as Headmaster. While the young witch had little experience with running the school, he had a degree in education leadership and tons of support from all the people he's helped over the years.

Caroline got a house near the borders of California and Arizona so that she could spend more time with her daughters.

Freya and Keelin raised their son to be a smart young man who graduated from the Salvatore school as valedictorian of his class after setting records for a couple of witch exams which tested for power and precision of his spells. Later in his life, Nik created a couple of spells of his own.

While the Machado never activated it, turns out the Machado twins had werewolf genes in their blood. They became acutely aware of them after Ethan's son activated his werewolf side after intervening in a fight in a dark alley to help a guy who was ganged up on by three large men. A single push changed his life. Fortunately for him, Landon found him and explained everything to him and his parents before inviting him to the Salvatore School, where the young Machado eventually fell for Alexis Levin-Chang.

All was well.

Or was it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it. The end. Huh. Felt weird writing it. It was sort of dry without any dialogue, sorry 'bout that. So, what did ya think?


End file.
